A few days ago, @natureofbeing approached me about running a joint posting initiative between the two of us, as a way to collectively pool our voting power and make more of a difference for other Steemians. Between our collaborative efforts, we came came up with what we think is a really beneficial social media Steemit Challenge and we've named it the "Random Acts of Kindness Challenge".
You can read all the particulars about the challenge from the original launch story that @natureofbeing posted right here:
Your Participation IS Encouraged And Will Be Worth Making An Effort
We want you to help us sprinkle some love and good feelings around the Steemit blockchain. We know that there is always room to help and lift others up, so please give us an opportunity to do so.
You can do this by blogging about a story that demonstrates and speaks to any kind of random act of kindness that you are aware of.
It can be fiction or non-fiction.
If it's a story that you have completely made up or it's a story based on a true encounter that you played a part in, or personally witnessed, just indicate somewhere in your story if it is true or not.
More Details
We'd like all the stories to stay around the 200 word mark and we'd like you to use the following tags:
The 5th tag is yours to choose.
We'd also like you to incorporate "Acts Of Kindness Challenge" into your story's title and include a link to your story on either this post or @natureofbeing's post so that it will make the process a little easier for us to find your submission to the challenge.
Both @natureofbeing and myself will upvote your posts, well-written comments and resteem those that we feel are worth resteeming. If we aren't following you yet, we may also follow you. (Simply, just participate in this challenge and give us a chance to get to know you a little bit.)
This is our way of helping anyone who chooses to see this challenge for the great opportunity that it is.
We want you to succeed and we want to share some lovely Steem Backed Dollars with you.
My True Random Act OF Kindness Story Involves A Bulb That I Haven't Given Up On
This is an Amaryllis flower. It's typically grown from a bulb and usually people in North American buy them in the late fall and force them into flower (inside) so that they will be in bloom for Christmas celebrations. People don't often keep these bulbs from year to year because it is very unpredictable if they will re-flower again. I have kept this particular bulb outside in my garden in the summer and dug it up and brought it inside for the winter months.
It's now 3 years old!
Last year, it only grew leaves and this year it has decided to flower in August. Usually, the flowers will last for about 3 weeks on a single stock and it may or may not grow another flower stock after this first one is finished.
Regardless of what this bulb ends up producing, it is now providing all of us with a random act of kindness, because it has decided that all of its conditions were meant and is "wowing" us with flowers in August, instead of December.
What a gift!!!
Thanks for spreading the love and telling your own stories. @natureofbeing and I look forward to reading them and feeling good, along with you!
~ Rebecca Ryan
@rebeccaryan Soo much loving kindness and compassion here! I love my yoga community. We give each other hugs to greet each other. We say I love you! My random act of kindness I suppose is when I'm walking down the street and I bless every person I cross paths with. They are one with me, I must show everyone non judgment and loving kindness. Mucho amor! Namaste
I love that....what a beautiful practice!! Thanks for spreading goodness and for writing about it here, upvoted!
@natureofbeing Oh my!! Thank you so much. This marks one of my first significant upvote! This is a special moment. Love makes great things happen, and I will certainly pass it on, as you have to me, once I gain more influence. Namaste <3
Well done @captainpearson!!!
Welcome to our Tribe!!! You're our kind of Spirit and I am so happy that you have found us!!!
It is with great pleasure that I have upvoted and followed you. ;)
It's a great idea for a challenge. So many folks don't want to talk about the good they do, they think it makes them conceited, and that's how we've been programmed really.
On the tv and newspapers, we are bombarded all day with tales of the worst sides of humanity, every bad bit of news they can round up from across the globe, and that's acceptable, but someone wants to share something good, and suddenly they're not altruistic or good anymore because they shared it. Sad!
What this world needs, is to hear about, to know the good that is happening all the time and everywhere around us. This is soul food and if enough shared the good, perhaps we could turn the tide of this world, from one of misery, to one of hope and happiness.
You get 100% of my upvoting power today on your fantastic comment. I completely agree and couldn't have written these thoughts better myself.
I get that people don't want to be perceived as bragging about their good deeds, but when we share the good, everyone's body get a boost of endorphins and that literally heals ALL who digest the story. (The originally person who performed the act of kindness, the receiver of the kindness, the witnesses of the act and all the folks who hear about it after the event has occurred.)
We can change the world if we think first and then change how and what we do, instead of blindly behaving a certain way because that's the way things have always been done. We simply must step outside the box and break the mold. It starts with each of us and our willingness to share with others.
Thanks for your great comment Lyndsay! I really appreciate you, my friend. ;)
Thank you SO much, and I appreciate you too. You guys are doing a wonderful thing for this platform, and I can see the Kindness challenge growing WINGS! I really can. I'll be supporting it/reading it and trying to contribute to it each and every time. I'm gonna resteem it in a little bit :) :) <3 <3 Big Love n Hugs!! xoxooxox
can't think of any
is that a flowering Amaryllis on the pic btw?
you got them in summer?
Yes!!! The bulb is 3 years old. It bloomed in December of 2014, then I kept it in the house until June 2015 before I planted it in my garden. In October 2015, I dug it out, kept it in the house for the winter, never flowered. Threw it outside again for 2016 and wintered it in the house and it never flowered. It only grew leaves each time. This May, I threw it outside again and just noticed that it was going to flower. This is why I have an Amaryllis in flower, in August! It is very unusual and is a random act of kindness on the part of this plant/bulb and I, because I didn't just give up on it and throw it out. ;)
Can't wait to read your story!!
Thank you <3 <3 NatureOfBeing :) xo
Awesome initiative that I would like to support... pay it forward people!
YES! Thanks @nzfxtrader!
Beautiful xo
love your story @rebeccaryan, and love your write up :-))
Thank you @natureofbeing!
I am hopeful that we will have more participants.
I get the sense that people really like the concept and I am very excited to see how many people are reacting positively to it.
I agree completely
actually, there is so much way that we can do to act of kindness..when other people feels being happy when we can help them, that such a little help from us, we can feel our heart is have better feeling.
me, i love to help each other..and now i am and some other friends in my city (Banda Aceh) we make a movement to help a children who have a problem with their health, such like cancer, thalassemia, etc. their from village and dont have money to go to hospital in the city, we help their family to bring their children to the city hospital, we find out some fund for them, and give them a houses when they came to the city.. @rebeccaryan
This is beautiful @orcheva! You have a great attitude and a heart of gold.
thank you @rebeccaryan just do that i can do..
This is a fantastic idea! Here's my story:
https://steemit.com/actsofkindnesschallenge/@stonemaiden/acts-of-kindness-challenge-real-climbing-heroics
Thank you @stonemaiden! I have upvoted this comment in an effort to give you more SBD.
Your story really is fantastic.
Thanks bunches!
https://steemit.com/actsofkindnesschallenge/@acwood/acts-of-kindness-challenge-a-human-story
I have upvoted your link too, in an effort to send a little more SBDs your way @acwood.
Good job!
Thank you @rebeccaryan!
I hope you liked the story. It is an inspiration to me.
Random Acts of Kindness.
I am a senior, I live in a rural community where seniors far outnumber other age groups. I have a friend who, although not a senior, is disabled and lives on a very small income. This friend goes with me to the local food bank every first and third Friday where we both get much needed groceries. Last week my friend was in too much pain to go to the food bank. I went and picked up food for both of us. Then I delivered the food to my friend. That family will eat this week because I was willing to pick up food and deliver it to their home. It was a small effort on my part, but my friend and family have assured me several times that it made their lives much easier. I would have gone for the food for my family, so it was not out of the way, nor a hardship for me, and it blessed someone else. What a wonderful experience.
Thanks for sending me this exert from your story! I greatly enjoyed it.
I have upvoted this comment too. ;)
I speak about this often because it is etched in my mind and heart.
He spread out his hand for alms and I dropped a few coins in his palm. I was walking away, when I heard a voice from behind say, “excuse me.” I turned back. It was the same old man. I said, “yes?” He responded - I’m glad God still makes beautiful women. I whispered a ‘thank you’ and left him standing there. That was New Year’s eve, and he made my day!
He was on my mind and - I had to go back.
After a couple of disappointments, I finally found him. I spent a long time talking to him. He calls himself a yogi and that's the reason he lives on public alms. I stood there for all of 60 minutes, mesmerized, while the highly educated and wise man talked about everything from the Pie-algorithm to Tolstoyan Movement. That was only the beginning. Like a moth drawn to light, I keep going back for more and he never disappoints me. I learn so much from him. He even advices me on various things.
While people give him money, I've never seen anybody talk to him – not once. I receive curious glances when they see me talking to an old man with dirty clothes, unkempt hair and a drunken demeanor.
One day, a couple of months back, he said to me, You made a difference in my life. Thank you! His words shook me to the core. All I did was talk to him and may be take him something to eat once in a while. It was at that moment that I realized there are people in this world who crave for the little things that we tend to take for granted: a little time and a few kind words.
Stopping for a moment and looking beyond the superficial appearances of people, can lead us to a wonderful world that we may not even know exists.
This is a beautiful story @knowledge1!
I am thinking that I may have confused you. I meant for people to write their story as an individual blog post using the 4 tags that we have identified and then copy the link for their blog story here, on this post as a way for us to more easily find this.
I have upvoted your story written as a comment at 100% of my upvoting power, but because it's not a posted story, others will only see it if they read through the comments. This is a shame because your story is really good and it's valuable.
What I would suggest is that you re-write it by changing it slightly, adding a picture and the tags that we have requested. It sounds like alms is a physical location where this person lives. Is that correct? If so, maybe you could explain that as a way to change this story up. Then, others will have a better chance of being able to read your work, it will help your reputation and we can upvote and resteem it.
If we get hit by the cheetah bot, I will speak up for you, if you are willing to rework and actually post your story.
I have followed you. :)
Now when I re-read your post, I see no confusion there. I somehow overlooked the bit about blogging the story. Thanks for bringing it to my notice.
The meaning of alms: money or food given to poor people. I used that specific word because I'm not comfortable using the word begging.
I may just create a blog post on this. Thanks for the upvote and following you too. :)
I hope you do @knowledge1, and if you do, post the link here and I will know. :)
What a cool challenge! We can definitely use some more positivity here on Steemit... actually found your post a couple of hours ago, left it open and went away to write something-- so here we go (think I got all the tags and stuff in there!):
https://steemit.com/actsofkindnesschallenge/@denmarkguy/the-stranded-skateboarder-a-travel-story-acts-of-kindness-challenge
Well done! I have upvoted this comment too because I want to award you as many SBDs as I can for your contribution.
I just wrote my entry for this amazing challenge! It's such a great way to motivate kindness in a different way!
Here is the link as requested.
https://steemit.com/actsofkindnesschallenge/@poeticsnake/random-acts-of-kindness-challenge-the-day-i-stopped
I have upvoted your comment too, so that I can award you more for your story. :)
Thank you so so much :D Much appreciated
I met a young man Sketching at a cemetary and was well spoken a good human. He said he was having a rough go and so we talked for about an hour he had knowledge that helped me and Vise Versa. I gave him enough money to have a nice meal and my thoughts were that one day I made need help and someone might help out. Service to Others before Service to Self a great MOTTO. Peace And LOVE from mick @airmobile
Hi @airmobile! Thanks for sending me this and I love the Motto!!
I have followed you and I think that we are practically neighbours...I'm in Glen Ross just before lock #7, about 45 minutes east of Peterborough.
If you re-work this a little bit into a post/story and add a picture, then @natureofbeing will be able to read it and upvote it too. If you are so inclined, that is...
This is a great idea for a challenge! Resteeming so I don't forget about it. I'll post a story by tomorrow. :)
Thanks so much @merej99, I really look forward to your story! I love your posts anyway :-)
It so great to hear from you @merej99!!!
I can't wait to read an entry from you. Thanks so much for your support and for the resteem.
We are really trying to get the word out and if it's well received by the community we are leaning towards turning this into an actual regular thing...maybe even with prize sponsors if there is interest.
Thank you for sharing. Isn't it wonderful that nature also contributes to the random act of kindness? It certainly tells us something. If nature does it, we should certainly pay it forward, right? And God wants us to do that as well. I will be following the beautiful stories that I am going to read. Let us inspire each other to make this world a more beautiful place.
Thank you for your lovely comment @minnaloushe!
Welcome to Steemit and our wonderful community.
I have followed you. :)
I hope you will consider entering a story of your own. We'd love to hear from you.
Cool.
I must resteem this!
Oh, hey. Would that be an act of random kindness?
Haha!
....upvoted and resteemed
Why, yes it would @acwood!
Thanks for your support with the upvote and resteem.
I have followed you :)
Welcome to the random acts of kindness challenge. :)
@natureofbeing is one of the kindest persons on steemit! When I first started here She Upvoted and commented on my posts when nobody else did! Gave me the push I needed as a minnow :) thanks so much!
That's a beautiful contribution and your gratitude will be passed on to @natureofbeing. She will be off Steemit for a couple of days and I will make a note of this for her and make sure that she sees your heartfelt comment when she's back.
I have followed you. Thank you for taking a minute to comment. :)
So glad to help @yonny and I hope you're having a good experience here on steemit! Thanks for supporting our challenge, I hope you post an entry!
Fantastic challenge , in fact we lack of kindness in this cruel world where the best is mixed up with the bad , people forget that whay goes around always cames around. We really need more kind people but those people are hard to find. Kindness is general currency accepted everywhere . Thank's for giving us this great chance . Upvoted
Thank you @mostafa1! I'm glad that you get the spirit of the kindness challenge. We are thrilled with the number of people who have take a few minutes to read and comment. I agree with you. Kindness as a currency is accepted everywhere. I have followed you. :)
@rebeccaryan here is my story https://steemit.com/actsofkindnesschallenge/@mostafa1/acts-of-kindness-challenge-helping-others-make-us-happy-kindness-is-priceless
I have upvoted this comment too, in an effort to give you more SBD for your contribution to the challenge. :)
I'm glad that you kept living and nurturing that bulb and in the end it gave back to you haha
I'll be sure to check out the challenge as it is probably a good idea to recollect on all of our good deed rather than focusing on negative ones.
On the spot I don't hunk I've done anything spectacular but I may have a go writing a fictional story
I do hope that you'll think about entering this challenge @arckrai.
I'd love to read a random act of kindness story from you...even if you come up with a fictional one. :)
What a beautiful idea, and I appreciate @lyndsaybowes for telling me about it! I'm one of those people she described in her comment who don't like telling others about the deeds I do. I like to keep most of them a secret. I work with children with special needs (now specifically Autism), so I feel like I encounter many opportunities to be a year round secret Santa of sorts. I give thanks for the new perspective of actually sharing/telling about acts of kindness as a means to inspire others to do caring acts! I guess I was conditioned to believe keeping them a secret was the only way to be genuine and humble, but now I can see that it could be a way to encourage others. Maybe I will be brave enough to share some of my stories at some point, either way thanks for the lovely message.
Yes please please please share yours! love to hear them ;-)
I agree with @natureofbeing! Please share. We'd love to read your stories.
I'm just learning about this awesome challenge! Great idea @rebeccaryan and @natureofbeing! I'll be sure to post before the week is out! Love love love this!
so glad, looking forward to it!
Hi @jaymorebeet!!! Glad you find us and I am so looking forward to reading your entry!
Dear Rebecca
You and your work have been spotted by the ecotrain. Would you be interested in joining our journey onboard?
Ecotrain is a new micro community on Steemit formed by @eco-alex, who is currently leading the ecoTrain, that has been running for two months. We’re posting about topics that help to make the world a better place. We all support each other: if we like a fellow ecotrainer’s post we make sure to comment and leave an upvote/resteem. We are truly engaged with each other and do our best to provide great new content for the Steemit ecosystem. There are currently 13 of us but we are growing. Please feel free to see what we have all posted since we started here:
https://steemit.com/created/ecotrain
We all communicate via Slack. We are a great bunch of people and feel that you would make a brilliant addition to our team. Would you consider joining us? If you have any questions, you can email Alex at [email protected]
Thanks if you can but if you are otherwise occupied, then steem on! Keep steeming your brilliant and engaging content :)
Hi @healingherb! I don't know anything about your ecotrain project and I have glanced quickly at the posts through the link you sent me. It looks like "all the content" is right up my alley! I'd be happy and honoured to join you. It may take me a bit to figure this out. Is Slack an app that the group is using to communicate with outside of Steemit?
Oh, that's great to hear, @rebeccaryan. Wonderful. Please consider contacting @eco-alex on the email given - it's easier to co-ordinate that way. Thanks so much :)
Great idea. The world can always use an injection of positivity, it can be infectious, and nothing inspires more than hearing or reading about the deeds of others. Well done.
Thank you for taking a minute to read and comment @steem-d-anlovnit!
Welcome to Steemit. I have followed you.
You should enter a post yourself. I'd love to read a random act of kindness story from you. ;)
Hi rebecca,
Thank you for the kind words and warm welcome, it is much appreciated. I took your suggestion and wrote a random act of kindness, but being new to the platform i had a little trouble posting it and am now having trouble finding the url, so i can't leave a link. The post is called Acts Of Kindness Challenge: What would Michael do? I hope you enjoy. Thank you.
I have upvoted this comment too @steem-doanlovnit to give you more SBD for your story.
When I want to copy a link from a post, I just copy the link from the top of the post. (Located where you would normally enter a web-address.) Then, I paste it directly into the comment box. :)
@rebeccaryan, you really are the epitome of this acts of kindness challenge, leading by example. Thank you for the advice, it will be a lot of use to me for the future.
@rebeccaryan,
Challenge... Okay I will ready for that! Thanks for initiate such collaborative work!
Cheers~
Oh good @theguruasia! I do hope you will post an entry. :)
Rebecca
You are so busy. When do you have time to live? lol
I will have to look at this when I have more time. How you find the time for all your projects is amazing to me. I barely keep up with the little that I do. Ha
Thank you. I will visit this subject and project a little later.
Francis
Sometimes I wonder this myself Francis! LOL!
I'd love to read a kindness story from you.
I've thought the same thing too @francisk...@rebeccaryan you have some superpowers going on!
No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted. ...
I couldn't agree more @blazing!
Thanks for commenting.
Nah, I like to do all good and kind stuff from shadows without getting noticed. Like batmen.
hahaha, I love it!!! Well that's pretty cool too...glad to know it's happening.
Thank you for commenting @yaan. I can respect your perspective on this. Some of the best random acts of kindness are completely anonymous. :)
great initiative, might do that when i found some time for it :)
I hope you write up a story! It can be short....
Sounds great @brothermic!
I hope the concept does inspire you to submit an entry. :)
Very good post n i love it
Thank you @madcool! I hope you'll enter a post. :)
beautiful flower
Thank you @awpmaster!
You should consider joining this challenge. :)
nice challenge 😍
Thanks @hassanabid!
You should consider entering a post.
Thanks for spreading the acts of kindness in the world Rebecca.
I am loving this idea. Great job!
I am LOVING reading these posts! Thanks so much @rebeccaryan! Here's mine! https://steemit.com/actsofkindnesschallenge/@jaymorebeet/acts-of-kindness-challenge-friends-to-the-rescue