Hello lovely We Can Be Kind peeps,
It has been a while! I am so crazy busy at the moment that I haven’t had a chance to sit down and type up my RAOKs. In fact sometimes, I allow the mundane bits of life to really get in the way and I forget to just do what I love.
I really love writing and am pleased to say that I have completed the first 10,000 words of my new book. It is feeling like yet another thing on my to-do list but when I sit down and bash out some pages I feel really good. You know the sort of good when you are really in flow with something? I love meeting other people who when they get into their flow are really inspiring – inspiring because you can see that whilst working, nothing else matters. They are absorbed in that moment of complete bliss with what they are doing.
One person I admire hugely is my friend Gee Charman. Gee is SO humble that most people she encounters don’t know that she is an enormously talented chef – she has been a chef at Kensington Palace, has food styled so many famous cook books, travelled the world using her talents and actually makes the BEST chocolate brownies you have ever tasted.
Gee encompasses the words flow, grace and humility and has fully embraced RAOKs into her life. I asked her to guest blog for me this week as recently she did something a lot of people cannot put on their C.V. She saved a life.
Handing you over to Gee now……
A couple of Saturdays ago we were driving out of London to go to a friend’s house in Oxford. Just as we were leaving the A4 to join the motorway we witnessed a motor bike accident 5 or so cars in front of us.
Without really thinking my instinct was to stop the car, run out, help and administer first aid. To cut a very long and slightly traumatic experience short, he was, after 40 minutes on the tarmac and a 5 day stay in hospital one very lucky guy. He had broken many bones but most importantly our actions had prevented him from being paralyzed from the mid chest down as he had fractured a bone in his spine.
Now I am not telling you this story for praise, believe me the letters and flowers from his family, phone calls from him, his wife and the police have sort of blown what I did as a normal human being out of proportion, but because it sparked something in me. This was not a random act of kindness, it was a propelled act of humanity which anybody would have done, but it has developed an innate sense of self, true inner peace and resultant happiness and all because when the “do I / don’t I” decision needed to be made I DID. The result for him? He is not paralysed and is back with his family recovering and in 6 months or so after physiotherapy he will be back to normal, but for me, days after the event came a true peace of mind and actually happiness.
This is where I start to sound a little “hippy” but in Buddhism happiness is a deep contentment, which arises from inner peace. I am not religious but Buddhism makes sense to me. Take eating an ice cream. It brings superficial happiness for a while but the “hit” is only short lived. The act itself changes nothing. Buddhists therefore believe that true happiness only comes from the act of giving, in its many forms.
I have always prided my self on being kind but actually going out of your way to do so is so personally rewarding and it can change a life, makes somebody’s day, week or month or even, just momentarily, provide human contact or interaction with another human that otherwise would have passed.
I for one have never taken drugs not because I am doing my best ‘angel’ impersonation (I am far from angelic) but because I hate being out of control. However, the buzz from doing something simple as a RAOK is how I imaging the buzz from recreational drugs to be. I have become slightly addicted to that peaceful buzz and now seek out my new drug.
From the Monday after the accident I decided to do a week of random acts of kindness, some big ones, some small ones and some mini ones. I did it because I selfishly wanted my hit, but also because we all lead very busy lives and sometimes the reason for not doing simple RAOK prevails and gets lost in the day to day pursuits.
Time is precious, so our own 5 minutes in the day when there are no demands naturally become a relatively selfish time, completing a task, to tick it off the list become THE solitary goal -the tube ride to work, the walk back from the supermarket, when we all switch off and go into auto pilot, but maybe….for just 30 seconds of the “me time” it could be come “their” time when YOU change the course of someone’s day.
Thank you Gee, you really are such a wonderful person – for more info on Gee’s work check out here and follow her on twitter too!
Acts of Kindness are like raindrops; first they form a puddle, then a river and before you know it you have created an ocean ~ Bridget Hunt
