While enjoying a summer trip to Maine with my husband several years ago, I noticed the beautiful flags displayed outside cafes, shops, and homes blowing with the breeze as we toured the lovely coastal villages. I began to think about the meaning of each flag as we walked by. There were patriotic flags, collegiate flags, organizational flags, and nautical flags. None of these flags reflected a message with any words spelled out but rather with recognizable symbols and colors.  As I began to ponder how much nonverbal communication fills our world, I thought how nice it would be to have a “Kindness” symbol … a symbol which reminds us to pass along a smile to a stranger, call a person who is lonely, lend a helping hand to those in need, compliment someone, send a card to someone you miss, or express gratitude. I held tight to the thought and over time designed a mental image of a kindness symbol which contained elements of meaning. Soon afterwards, I teamed up with my daughter (who is in the marketing field) and a graphic designer to finetune my design. During the official design process, I sought the professional guidance of a local attorney for trademarking the kindness symbol and a slogan, “Be Mindful to Be Kindful!” The vision of this project has required a tremendous amount of time, energy and patience; however, my dream and goals are as strong as ever!  Seeing the design recently come to life on a flag, car magnet, t-shirt, cap and stickers makes me smile! Some of my goals are to engage schools in kindness projects and routinely recognize students who perform acts of kindness; for restaurants/cafes, shops, and offices to display the kindness flag; for friends and the general public to pass along a kindness sticker, car magnet, cap or t-shirt to someone who performs a random act of kindness; and to share heartwarming kindness stories on social media outlets.  

With disturbing world issues such as poverty, bullying, road rage, school shootings, animal abuse, and war, we need a lot of kindness.  Random Acts of Kindness Week is February 14th - 20th (appropriately scheduled around Valentine’s Day). Let’s all participate in random acts of kindness, as well as in kind acts that are not random at all! Kindness highlights our similarities rather than our differences. 

Growing up in a home with where kindness was taught and seeing examples of kindness throughout my life certainly prioritized this virtue.  Spirituality/ religion guides my daily path. One of my favorite Bible verses related to kindness is from Hebrews 10:24: “Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.” My heart desires to reflect kindness … being kind makes me feel happy!