26 Acts of Kindness - Day 26

Today's Act of Kindness was in honor of Allison Wyatt. Young Allison, or Allie as she was called, was a sweet, somewhat shy little girl. She was smart, creative and was developing a wonderful sense of humor. Her parents said she could be silly one minute and then make an observation that was so funny they would be crying with laughter.

Allie was kind-hearted and anyone who spent any amount of time with her adored her. She had her two grandpas wrapped around her little finger. She loved her teachers and her family. She was a great big sister who helped teach her younger sister how to ride the school bus.

Allison was a helpful and giving little girl. She would happily help her mother with the gardening and she loved to do acts of kindness for her family and friends. She even once shared her snacks on a plane with a complete stranger.

Allie was a little artist. She loved to paint and turned her home into both a studio and a gallery. Her art was plastered all over the walls. She made the world a more beautiful place for far too short of a time.

I've mentioned several times how my amazing friend, Julie inspired me to start my acts of kindness. For today's final act I am taking a page directly out of her book. When she wrote about her final act of kindness it was so perfect that I simply couldn't imagine ending this journey in any other way.

Since Allie was a budding artist, today my husband, my son and I went to the store and picked up two art kits. We then drove over the Clackamas Town Center, a mall on the other side of Portland. This mall definitely wasn't the closest mall to us - we probably passed four other malls on the way there - but I had a reason for picking it.

Only a few days before the tragedy at Sandy Hook a gunman walked into Clackamas Town Center and opened fire on the patrons trying to get their Christmas shopping done. Two people were killed, and a young teenage girl who was on her way home from school (she walked through the mall every day to get home) was hospitalized. It sounds terrible to think of how much worse it could have been - any life lost to such senselessness is one too many... and then came Sandy Hook in its wake.

I felt that since such a terrible thing happened at Clackamas Town Center just last month that it could use a bit of something good happening at it as well. We walked into the mall and immediately found ourselves in the children's indoor playground area; I suppose we picked the right entrance. I looked around for a child who was about 6-8 years old.

My gaze soon fell on a little girl who was sitting on the bench next to her mother. She was probably about 8 years old and looked a bit bored. I'm guessing she was too old for the play toys and was waiting there while her younger sibling played. It looked like she could use a little cheering up. I approached her and her mother. I knelt down in front of them and asked her if she liked art. She smiled shyly and said she did. I held out the watercolor painting kit we had brought and told her I was out doing acts of kindness and I wanted her to have this art kit and I hoped she enjoyed it. She looked at her mom questioning. Her mother nodded her head and I handed her the kit. Then I asked her if she could do something. I handed her the other kit and asked her if she could find another child to give the second kit to. She grinned, turned to her mother and said "Oh! Could I give it to ____?" Her mom nodded and said that would be good. The girl thanked me quietly and the mother graciously thanked me as well.

I walked away in search of my boys.

I love that for this final act of kindness (again, the idea was all Jules's!) I handed the baton off to another family. Gave them the chance to help spread some joy as well, and hopefully that will be just the beginning of their journey.

And it was so fitting that it was in tribute to the young artist, Allie, who loved to do acts of kindness. Thank you, Aliie for making the world a more beautiful and kind place, just by being yourself.

"When one person is thoughtful to another, the thoughtfulness gets carried on and on.
It is like a river of kindness, once blocked by rocks,
That is suddenly opened by a single person's kind thought or act.
The river runs freely again, and continues to flow,
Moving more rocks and reaching the hearts of others.
When one person is thoughtful to another the thoughtfulness gets carried on and on.
The more we get together and help each other,
The more friendship there can be throughout many different places.
The friendship can begin like a small stream in a single neighborhood.
And then expand throughout a river of districts, states, countries, and even continents.
When one person is thoughtful to another, the thoughtfulness gets carried on and on.
Soon, we could have a whole ocean of friendships, and that's how the world was created
And how it should always be."
-Mattie J.T. Stepanek
 (1990-2004)