26 Acts of Kindness

Our nation will remember December 2012 with sadness. Parents will remember it as a time when they held their children close and perhaps made a commitment to be better people, to do something good in the face of unspeakable tragedy.

We at TulsaKids didn’t have it in our hearts to come up with a cheerful cover, as we usually do. Like most of you, we wanted to do something – anything–to remember those children. Our cover is meant to honor these innocent children and adults who lost their lives on December 14, and to keep the parents and family members in our thoughts and hearts.

As I tried to make sense of the irrational horror on that day and the weekend after, I found that I automatically turned to doing things for others. I started by putting up a tree, decorating and cooking for my family, so that when my children came home, they would return to a warm and happy place.

I wrote cards to friends and made time to serve dinner at the Day Center for the Homeless. I’ll admit, it took a little of the edge off of my feelings of helplessness. During the holiday season, it’s easy to find ways to give to others.

Now it’s January.

Too often, the good we do,along with the warm feelings, are packed away with the ornaments waiting to be pulled out again at the end of the year. Somehow in the cold light of January, the holiday spirit starts to look a little corny and clichéd.

But what if it didn’t?

One of the nicest things that I saw rise from the Newtown tragedy was journalist Ann Curry’s 26 Acts of Kindness. She said,“What if? Imagine if everyone could commit to doing one act of kindness for every one of those children killed in Newtown.”

That’s all it took – the idea spread through social media like crazy. If you tweet, you can go to #26Acts to see the random acts of kindness being chronicled, or visit www.facebook.com/26acts.

But you don’t have to be on social media to get into the“act.”Just focus on nice things, big or small, that you can do for others. Post them on TulsaKids Facebook page, if you’d like.

Maybe 2013 can be the year where we focus on being kind to one another.

As Ann Curry said,“What if?”