Random Acts of Kindness ~ A Way of Life
By Laurie Murray, Volunteer Coordinator, Homeland Hospice
National Random Acts of Kindness Day is the day to do something special for another person. Scientific evidence shows that doing kind acts for others as well as receiving or even witnessing kindness has a positive effect. Even the smallest act of kindness can change a life.
We encourage everyone to make kindness a way of life. It can be just a small act … it does not need to be a grand gesture. Open and hold the door for someone. Talk to the store clerk as they ring up your purchases. Pay for someone’s coffee behind you in line. Take the time to share a compliment. Send a card to someone who has been going through some challenges. The ideas are limitless!
The care Homeland provides is all about random acts of kindness. Our staff perform them every day. From stopping at a local restaurant to picking up a patient’s favorite hamburger or bringing Christmas dinner to a patient’s family to regularly emptying the kitty litter box, or helping a patient find a private caregiver. Another example is assisting a fellow nurse after hours to bathe a patient who has passed away, or making an extra stop on the way home to offer some extra reassurance. Kindness is bringing a big bag of jellybeans … just because, and seeing the patient’s face light up; or bringing peanuts so the patient can feed her squirrels.
Homeland volunteers also perform daily acts of kindness … like driving more than 55 miles (one way) to visit a patient and bringing him/her a favorite snack such as vanilla crème wafers and peaches; decorating a patient’s home for the holiday; picking up groceries every Tuesday morning; or, washing and drying a patient’s laundry.
It is this way of life, these random acts of kindness, that families remember when reflecting on our services. They are what prompt them to say their experience with Homeland was “peaceful and beautiful.”
It is an honor to work alongside people who not only live the Homeland mission to “provide the highest quality of care,” but who go above and beyond every day of their lives to provide simple acts of kindness.
“No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.” ~ Aesop
