Project 36

Tomorrow, Friday the 18th of November, it will be 36 days until my 36th birthday. This means I have 36 days left to enjoy being 35 {oops}!

It also means that this year, these 36 last days will be well spent on a mission, a personal ‘project’ filled with small acts of random kindness. I’m not out to save lives or save the world, it is mainly with the intention to bring a smile to a stranger’s face, perhaps a little warmth to their hearts and even their soul.

I was influenced and inspired by my favourite film ‘Amelie’ {I’ve told you all about that here, remember?} and a little facebook page with the same name which I am a follower. So this means that I have decided to spend these remaining 36 days dedicating my thoughts and actions to the service of others and therefore embark on this personal project in which during those 36 days I will practice acts of ‘Amelie’ kindness.

Lately I have seen these personal projects pop up on the virtual airwaves here and there, and I was particularly inspired by Mix Mingle Glow's Robyn 38th Birthday project. Although I didn’t like the fact that the act of listing these daily ‘acts of random kindness’ seem more of an attention seeking exercise, making it about the person who’s doing it, the self-proclaiming martyr. So listing actions such as carrying an old lady’s shopping bags to the car is just something I wasn’t going to list on my personal project. The ‘acts of random kindness’ practiced on a daily basis or whenever the opportunity arises:  helping the elderly with their shopping, donating to charity, offer food to a homeless person - is all in a good Samaritan’s day {I hope!}, well, it is in my day.

My plan is to go over and above my normal way doing acts which will be out of the ordinary. For me it’ll be a spiritual/comfort quest …or a plain material one as it’ll get me out of my normal routine if I’ve got to bake a cake to offer a complete stranger! It’ll be about having fun and hopefully spreading this little fun, a few smiles and {why not} some Christmas cheer…my birthday is after all on the 23rd of December and that means I love Christmas above all things as I came to this world as a Christmas present!

Note: after much thought and because there are 36 full days of it I may have to resource to the ‘normal’ simple daily acts as usual as those still count to the objective and I may run out of completely original ideas.

I couldn’t agree more with the fact that this is the worst time of the year to do it, and I know all about that since I was destined to celebrate my birthday when everyone is so busy with JC’s…really no contest there, is there?

So here’s what I’m most fearing on the 36 days ahead: a lack of ‘free’ ideas or thoughts that can be done without involving spending money, as it would be just so much easier to offer money or items of value to make people happy. It’s true that in this day and age the majority of people only find a little happiness when there’s money/items of value involved, but I like to believe that there are still those who will smile with a little free gesture of generosity, a sympathy, an emotion.

Another fearsome opponent is time. Everyone including me will have to start thinking about the Holidays, having the house full on a constant basis and that also involves preparing for lots of food, décor, presents etc – there is no point trying to explain to you why this is one of the most stressful times for mums! There’s also the fact that in the meantime I am also organising a little boy’s 2nd birthday {my little boy}. Opponent 3: the coming weather and this, in England, will include the first snowstorm and a lot of frosty cold non-appetizing ‘go-outside’ weather. All in all, I’m not going to be daunted by all that, I’m just checking my opponents so I’m better prepared to beat them when needed!

I will not post on the project everyday but I will definitely try and present it as creatively and interesting as possible for you, my lovelies.

Feel free to leave me your comments, I’m counting with your support and above all feel free to share your fantastic ideas for little acts I can add to this ‘project’! Who knows…it might catch on and one day all of you will be doing it too!

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