Find Your Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for a kindness. ~Seneca
It’s funny the holidays you come across when you spend the majority of your time googling flowers. Did you know that there is a World Kindness Day? Impressive.
Gee Beet Phang (Photo: The Straits Times)
World Kindness Day was started just over a decade ago at the first World Kindness Movement conference in Tokyo, Japan. Apparently, there was a 35 year tradition of participating in a day that celebrated small acts of kindness. (Sounds a lot like the American “Sweetest Day”, doesn’t it?)
The purpose of World Kindness Day is very communal and sweet. It’s a day established to encourage people to remember that we are not just a person of one race, country, creed or religion. We are a part of the world which is made up of wonderful, different people. Each and every person deserves love because of their humanity, not just something special they have done, said or are.
It’s a beautiful sentiment shared by millions which have caused the holiday to spread our way. This year, we celebrate World Kindness Day on November 13th.
You can read more about World Kindness Day (it’s all over the Internet), but here’s the story that caught my attention:
Get Beet Phang is a 60-year-old cleaner who clears tables at a Suntec food court in Singapore. This act was part of the Singapore Kindness Movement (SKM) which hopes to extend good tidings through World Kindness Day on the 13th.
Get Beet Phang received 35 bright yellow gerbera daisies on Tuesday, November 3rd, from colleagues who wanted to show their appreciation for how kind and helpful she has been all of these years. In the article from The Straits Times, the recipient goes on to say that she has been working for 13 years and has never received as many flowers. The look on her face in the photo that runs with the article is priceless. She looks elated to have received so much attention.
The SKM is prepared to donate more than 40,000 daisies to donate and will be celebrated in over 60 venues in Singapore alone. Imagine what kind of trademark we could leave on the world if we decided to send flowers or a card to someone that we value. The idea is mind-boggling and exhilarating.
It’s small acts of kindness like this that make it easy for people to be gracious to one another. Kindness is contagious. You almost feel obliged to be kind to someone who has been nice to you because you want to make them feel what you felt. Rather than spreading negativity, why don’t we do something of our own to take part in World Kindness Day?
What this world needs is a new kind of army – the army of the kind. ~Cleveland Amory
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