Random Acts Of Kindness

• Go to your child's class and talk about random acts of kindness. Then have the kids put together a booklet of the things they have done and those that have happened to them. Have them go home and teach parents the idea and come back to school the next day with stories from their families.
   
• Spend half an hour in a hospital emergency room and do one random act of kindness that presents itself.
   
• Offer to help people who could use the assistance to cross streets--seniors, the blind, small children...
   
• Plant a tree in your neighborhood.
   
• The next time someone speaks to you, listen deeply without expecting anything.
   
• Find someone you've been close to and sit back to back with her. For a few minutes disclose the random acts of kindness she has done for you while she just listens. Then switch and listen to the wonderful things you have done.
   
• Yes, it's a drag, but why not put your shopping cart back in its appointed place in the parking lot?
   
• Write a note to the boss of someone who has helped you, thanking him or her for having such a great employee.
   
• Buy a roll of brightly colored stickers and stick them on kids' shirts as you walk down the street.
   
• Make a list of thing to do to bring more kindness into the world and have a friend make a list. Exchange lists and do one item per day for a month.
   
• Spend a week just being aware of things in nature that befriend you.
   
• Open the phone book and select a name at random and send that person a greeting card.
   
• Hold a random acts of kindness party where everyone tells the stories of kindness' in their life.
   
• Walk around with an instamatic camera and take people's pictures and give them to them.
   
• Bring a little beauty into sterile places--drop off a geranium plant at a police station or a cutting from a houseplant to your local fire station.
   
• When someone is trying to merge into your lane in traffic, let him in--and why not smile and wave while doing it!
   
• All of you reading these words have loved someone, have done someone a kindness, have healed a wound, have taken on a challenge, have created something beautiful, and have enjoyed breathing the air of existence. Never doubt how precious, how vitally important you are. Every moment you make a difference. So, today, appreciate yourself as a random act of kindness.
   
• Write a letter of appreciation to that which in nature has been a safe place for you. *As you go about your day, why not pick up the trash you find on the sidewalk?
   
• Write a card thanking a service person for his or her care and leave it with your tip. Be sure to include a very specific acknowledgment: "I appreciate the careful way you cleaned the room without disturbing my things", "Your smile as you served me dinner really made my day."
   
• If you are in any of the helping professions, ask your clients to tell you their stories of random acts of kindness.
   
• For one week, act on every single thought of generosity that arises spontaneously in your heart and notice what happens as a consequence.
   
• On Thanksgiving, call up everyone you know and ask them what they are thankful for so they can feel their own gratitude.
   
• Give another driver your parking spot.
   
• Talk to people at work about one of your random acts of kindness and ask what one of theirs is. Disclosure stimulates us to do more by emphasizing the pleasure of giving with no strings attached.
   
• Your car is a place where you can make many courteous gestures with little effort. Sometimes smiling at the person in the car next to you or waving hello to a pedestrian in the crosswalk can really lift not only the other person's spirits, but your own.
   
• Visit a neighbor with a bouquet of flowers for no reason at all.
   
• Send a letter to a teacher you once had letting her know about the difference she made in your life.
   
• Buy a cold drink for your entire row at the baseball game.
   
• Say "thank you" to someone who helps you and really mean it. You might want to look into his eyes, smile, and, if he is wearing a name tag, say his name as well.
   
• Ask an older person to tell you a story about his or her youth, such as what her favorite song was and why, or how he met his spouse.
   
• Let the person behind you in line at the grocery store go ahead of you.
   
• Order a mail-order gift, anonymously, for a friend or someone at work who needs to be cheered up.
   
• Take out an ad in your local newspaper thanking a tree, a park, a stream, a sunset, for giving you comfort.
   
• Buy a big box of donuts or chocolates for the office next to yours. Or the kids who hang out on the street corner. Or the UPS person or the mail carrier.
   
• Make an anonymous donation to some local charity that is actively helping people--feeding the homeless, providing foster care for children, and so on. Or start a fund raising drive in your office for such organizations.
   
• Bake a cherry pie and leave it on someone's doorstep.
   
• Slip a $20 bill into the pocketbook of a needy friend (or stranger).
   
• Get a big piece of paper and a magic marker, and sit back to back with a friend. Across the top of the page, write the words physical, emotional, aesthetic, spiritual, and relational. Set an alarm clock for ten minutes and make a thank-you card for all the people, places of things that have affected you in those dimensions. When the time is up, share your paper with one another.
   
• Organize your friends and workmates to gather their old clothes and give them to homeless people.
   
• Go to an AIDS hospice or hospital ward and see what you can do for one person.
   
• Next time you go over a toll bridge pay for the car behind you and don't forget to thank the toll taker.
   
• If someone in your neighborhood leaves on a trip and forgets to stop the newspaper, pick them up and put them in a safe out-of-view spot.
   
• Next time you go to the movies, pick out someone behind you in the line and tell the ticket seller you want to pay for their ticket as well. Make sure to ask that they not reveal who paid for their ticket.
   
• If you have any artistic abilities, buy a shopping bag full of art supplies and take it and yourself out to a playground or recreation center in a poor neighborhood and go to it.
   
• If you know someone who is going through a bad day or a difficult time in life, make it better by doing something--anything--to let him or her know someone cares...and don't let on who did it!
   
• Laugh out loud often and share your smile generously.
   
• Praise the work or attitude of a person you work with to someone else in the office in a time, place, and manner that is outside of all office politics.
   
• If you are the boss, bring your secretary a cup of coffee in the morning.
   
• Buy gift certificates--for a kids' clothing store, a record store, whatever suits your mood--and find a way to get them--anonymously--to people you think could really use them.
   
• Take the opportunity in conversations with friends to tell them about kindness' you have experienced and ask about their experiences. Just talking about acts of kindness brings them alive in the world.
   
• Get your children to go through their toys and put aside those they want to donate to children who are less fortunate.
   
• Buy a giant box of candy at the theater, take one and pass it down the row to share.
   
• Next time you go to the ice-cream parlor, pay for a few free cones to be given to the next kids to come in.
   
• If you have an infirmed person living near you, offer to do the grocery shopping for him or her.
   
• Pick up the mail for a senior or someone else who could use the assistance.
   
• Send a fax to someone you don't know and start a random acts of kindness chain fax letter.
   
• If there is a garden you pass frequently and enjoy, stop by one day and leave a note letting the occupants know how much pleasure their garden gives you.
   
• Make a dedication on your local radio station to all those people who smiled at strangers today.

Summer Chicken

Pecan Crusted Southern Fried Chicken

Vegetable oil, for frying
1/2 pound pecan pieces
2 cups flour
Essence, recipe follows
1 large frying chicken, cut into 8 pieces, about 3 1/2 pounds (2 breasts, 2 legs, 2 thighs, and 2 wings)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 eggs, beaten
3 tablespoons milk

 Heat the oil, over medium heat, in a large cast iron skillet. In a food processor, fitted with a metal blade, finely ground the pecans. Combine the pecans with the flour. Season with Essence. Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Whisk the eggs with 2 tablespoons of the milk. Dredge the chicken pieces in the pecan flour, coating each piece completely. Dip the chicken in the egg wash, coating completely and letting the excess drip off. Dredge the chicken in the pecan flour, for a second time, coating the chicken completely. Gently lay half of the chicken in the hot oil, skin side down. Fry the chicken for 6 minutes. Turn the chicken over and continue to cook for 6 minutes or until the chicken is golden brown and the chicken is completely cooked. Remove the chicken from the oil and drain on a paper-lined plate. Season the chicken with Essence. Continue frying the remaining chicken. Serve the chicken with Cole Slaw.

Comfort Food

Dutch Cabbage

½ lb. red cabbage

2 apples

¼ lb. bologna

¼ to ½ c. mayonnaise

Salt, pepper, mustard to taste

Shred cabbage fine. Core and dice apples. Cube bologna. Place ingredients in bowl and add salt, pepper and mustard to taste. Stir in mayonnaise. Serves 4.

Irish Pie

Ready made refrigerated pie crust, pkg. of 2

1/2 bag frozen broccoli

1 can cream of chicken soup

¼ cup milk

Salt and pepper to taste

2 tbs. minced onion

2 tbs. minced garlic

Pinch of chives

1 pkg. instant mashed potatoes, any flavor, made up per directions

1 bag any shredded cheese or equiv. grated.

Combine milk, soup, spices in bowl; mix until smooth. Add broccoli, stir. Place one crust in pie pan. Spread broccoli mixture on crust. Spread potatoes on top. Sprinkle cheese, then top with second pie crust. Press edges with fork, poke holes in center, trim any excess from edges. Bake at 425 for 30-40 minutes or until crust is a nice golden brown and center is hot when sliced into with knife tip. Cover edges with foil if they brown too quickly.

Creating Your Cookie Pillow