Trusting The Message of Kindness

Andy spent the weekend as an advisor at a leadership event. Orly Wahba, founder of Life Vest Inside, also happened to be an advisor there and as she is well known to do, at the end of the weekend gave an Act of Kindness (AOK) card to Andy. An AOK card has an act of kindness prompting the person to perform the act and then to go the next step and pass the card to someone else. They remind us that small things do make a big difference.

The AOK card Orly placed in Andy’s hand said, call your grandparents. Andy only had one grandparent left, his grandfather and he hadn’t heard from him in a while. He realized he really didn’t know how his grandfather was doing. Andy did know his parents had been coaxing his grandfather to get away over the winter and enjoy himself, but his grandfather had been tentative the last time Andy had heard anything.

After receiving the AOK card Andy decided to trust the message. It was time to give his grandfather a call. He discovered his grandfather was doing fantastic, having just returned from his third cruise that winter! That call allowed Andy to connect with his grandfather as they shared the good things in each other’s lives and were happy for each other.

To connect like that was awesome. I went on a kindness binge after that. Like a Netflix marathon.

As most people who find the kindness bug, Andy discovered some people were distrustful of his intentions. Reactions he received, ”Like why would you be nice to me? What do you want?” But that didn’t stop him as he “pounded through” the good deeds. Instead Andy’s response was short and sweet, “To do random acts of kindness, man.”

We wonder how many lives have been touched with kindness because Andy decided to trust the message on an AOK card and make that phone call.

– Edited by Jewel Fries

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