Random Acts of Kindness

A little over a month ago, I arrived at work to find the most amazing gifts on my desk.  They were not wrapped and there was no card to let me know who had given them to me.

One was a book, 'The Steampunk Bible' and the other was a Steampunk styled necklace.

                   

By nature I am not the type of person who mixes my personal life with my work habits. Well, it would be safer to say that I am not in the habit of sharing my likes and dislikes with my co-workers. At any rate, since I am only close with a few of my fellow cubicle jockeys I reached out to the short list of people that I thought may have gifted me which such items. After learning that no one on my said ‘short list’ had been the mystery gift giver I was seriously stumped.

My next plan of action was to discuss this matter with FuriousBow since she too had been gifted in much the same way only weeks prior. She too had been unable to deduce who had left the Star Wars cookie set on her desk. By the end of the day, the list of ‘could be gifters’ was narrowed down to one of the technicians that we had both spent time assisting.

Although we both knew that whoever had left the gifts for us had intended to do so without any return appreciation or acknowledgement, I could not leave the office without at least attempting to say thank you. I drafted a simple email and asked if they had indeed been the person who left the gift.  I received a quick response that confirmed the ‘Bow and I had been correct.

Without attempting to quote the conversation that followed, I can say that the end result left me filled with the overwhelming emotion that can only be described as, ‘goodwill’. It reminded me that sometimes saying ‘thank you’ even without the person being aware who is showing their appreciation can lift their spirits and remind them that someone appreciates their efforts. It seems that far too often people only ‘give’ others tokens in hopes that they too will be rewarded for being a ‘good person’.  This random act of kindness showed me that the idea of kindness is still alive. Likewise, it rekindled my desire to do the same for others.

So go out there and let someone know that they are appreciated, that what they do each day is noticed. But do it with zero desire of a return reward, do it simply because you want to remind that person that what they do matters, they are noticed.