After finding the website, I Wrote This For You dot me, I immediately bought the book, of course — titled after the website: I Wrote This For You by Pleasefindthis. And in it, I found some of the most beautiful, raw snippets of thought prose. One of the passages that stands out to me right now is titled, “The Static On The Line”. It says,

Don’t talk to me like you know me. Talk to me like you love me.

Incredible, eh? So, why not? Why don’t we talk to people like we love them, like we adore them? Why are we often harshest to those we are closest with? He writes about this on his blog too, in a post titled “The Closeness of Shadows” where he says,

You still believe you’re allowed to hurt the people who love you more than anyone else.

Why is that? =/ That is so sad. Let’s stop, shall we?

And definitely, read the book and the website.

• Day 1 — Send a note of appreciation to someone I care about (done)
• Day 2 — Smile at ten strangers (done)
• Day 3 — Hold the door open for ten strangers (done)
• Day 4 — Give the gift of music (done)
• Day 5 — Donate books to the library (done)
• Day 6 — Offer up free babysitting hours to friend (done — offering… the hours are still yet to be redeemed)
• Day 7 — Make something for someone for no particular reason but I can… (done– pillow case — see below)

I sewed this all myself! How cute is that?

I am a nice person in general. I try to do random acts of kindness all year long. =) So, there you have it. Week accomplished. And what did you do for random acts of kindness?

For seven days during RAK Week we invite you to take the Extreme Kindness Challenges.

We will suggest a new Act of Kindness each day. Choose a time when it works for you to do the Act of Kindness, but be sure to do it at least once each day for seven days. If you don’t want to do our idea but instead decide to do a challenge of your own, that counts too!

Our mission is to inspire you to act and share. We know that act of Kindness is our Ticket to a Kinder World!

So, for the next seven days I will check in with the site and see the suggestions and try to follow them. Day 1 was to send a note of appreciation to someone you love. I sent three! =) Fun stuff. Thanks Melissa (from OperationNice) for suggesting this site! =) And I am taking you up on your offer to do the challenge!

I also stumbled upon a great way to be charitable AND to read at the same time. You can read more about that at BeNonsensical. And I joined another nice cause over at itstartswithus.com where I joined the ‘Drop a Love Bomb‘ mission. They send me an email each week with a story about a blogger, a person who needs some encouragement. And then I follow the link and leave a comment or message. I’ve done two so far. I think it is an excellent way to drop in on someone when they need it the most! =)

It is fun being nice. =)

For the record, I am sorry. And love is fade resistant, no matter how far I go, no matter how long I am silent.

All Smiles, originally uploaded by optikal..

The newest nice assigment is to smile more. I am a fairly smiley person already so this will be easy and fun. I generally try to smile at everyone all the time. But I will pay attention and try to smile more. I will also encourage others to smile as well.

And for another nice update,

I finished the living eulogy. I wrote it for my dear friend E. and gave it to her when I was finished. She loved it.

I think I will write more for others but I will take a different, slightly more positive direction. I think I will write like I am nominating [said person] as Man or Woman of the Decade. And then talk about why… that might be a more positive version of this ‘nice’ assignment. Eulogies seem creepy. And in some cultures it is bad luck to write a eulogy or obituary for someone who is not dead. It is like putting a curse on them. Wouldn’t want to do that! Particularly not with people I care about… well, no one really but you know what I mean!

Better be safe than sorry!

This leaves only new and ongoing nice challenges. I continue to make nice drops. The other day when we were getting coffee, we paid for the person behind us and left a nice note. It is fun!! This Tuesday I’ll be making a handmade valentine! How much fun will that be?

Want to join me in my quest to be nicer?

[contact-form-7]

I sent off my first postcard to a family or friend today… in my nice journey. =) I am excited to hear from the person I sent it to. It has been too long!

I happened upon a most wonderful site the other day, Operation NICE. Allow the lovely lady who started it tell you in her own words (from the website) what it is about,

Don’t you love it when people go out of their way to be nice? Like when someone waits to hold the door for you. Or when a stranger waves you into a line a traffic. Or even when a coworker shoots you a friendly smile along with a “have a nice day.” If everyone was a little bit nicer to the folks they encountered each day, perhaps the world would be a more pleasant place. Operation NICE was initiated to remind you that a little NICE goes a long way.

And so a movement was born…a journey to be nice and proactively spread the niceness. I am jumping in head first! I am already a fairly nice person. I compliment good service. I write thank you notes. I try to be thoughtful mostly. However, I am ready to begin a journey into new depths of niceness.

Most every week for the past few years the nice lady who runs Operation Nice has given out nice assignments for others to complete. Having just found the site I feel a little jealous I have missed out on all these nice opportunities to be super-duper nice and make another person’s day a little bit better. And so! I have decided I will do some of the past assignments as well as trying to do the new ones that she conjures up! It will be fun, fun indeed. These are the past nice assignments I have decided upon:

• Mail a card to a random stranger (picked from the telephone book). I will do this once a month, every 3rd Thursday a month, I already sent the first one yesterday to a lady in Illinois! The whitepages.com insists you put in a last name so I chose a random word close to my heart, ‘book’. =) Fun!  (Ongoing)
• Hand make valentines and give them to those you care about. I had a head start on this one as I did this for Valentine’s Day. But why stop on that day? I will handmake one valentine every month to send to someone I care about–on the 2nd Tuesday of every month. (Ongoing)
• I love list for each month, write a list or do a doodle composition of what you love about the current month… or as I will do it the upcoming month. I will post my What I love about this month picture or list on the 1st of every month. (Ongoing)
• Write a living eulogy — I will give this some thought and get back to you soon… I might even post it. If not, I will post about it. (Finished on August 6th)
• Send a postcard to family and/or friends on a regular basis. I will choose some nifty postcards and send one a week to a different person until I recycle through everyone and then begin again. (Ongoing)
• Make a I Love list, a positive way of articulating goals or just being grateful. I will make one soon… and periodically make new ones… this one will be fun! (Finished on July 30th)
• Nice bombs, on the Operation Nice website she provides cards you can print out that say Nice Note and a space for you to write in your own message. She even attaches little gifts with them! How nice!!! I will write some out and sometimes add little gifts… and leave them places, taking photos of the places I leave them to share with everyone. (Ongoing)

Oh! I am excited to get all crazy random nice! How fun! I will keep you up to date on my journey to the inner depths of niceness. In the meantime why not start your own little nice things to do and tell me about it and tell Melissa from Operation Nice about it too! And a big fat thank you to you Melissa for inspiring me to be even nicer.

Updated last (August 25th).

A hand drawn message drawn for me a long time ago, I keep it near my computer and I know I am always loved!

I think it is important to love without abandon, to say what you think but make sure you really think it first. Laugh often, even at yourself but be kind and forgiving with everyone including yourself. Write notes to those around you. Texts. Leave voicemails. Write a note by hand on a shred of paper or on 32 pages front and back… and mail it even if you live in the same house. Everyone loves to get mail that isn’t a bill. Give yourself a pep talk. Use affirmations that are fun. Be nice, go the extra mile. This world needs a little extra dose of love and friendliness.