The World could use a little more Love.

 I think I sound nicer than I really am. When I travel, I pay to volunteer. I don’t expect you to understand, and I’m certainly not going to justify why I do this, but you need to know how great it makes me feel. Volunteering provides an infinite amount intrinsic reward and warm, fuzzy feelings to such a degree that I almost do it for selfish reasons. And I don’t think I'll ever get poor by giving. I think if I do good things for people, Good Karma will take care of me. I become happier doing something for the sake of making other people happy.

 

I think that for me, the scariest thing would be to heavily rely or depend on someone. From an emotional or financial standpoint it makes me want to puke. When someone does something genuinely nice, like helping me cut firewood, offering me a bed (for when I come back homeless, with Malaria), giving me a house to live in (like, right now) I feel like I’m impeding on their kindness and it’s the last thing I want to do. But, I was given some advice recently: “When you’re offered help, sometimes the nicest thing you can do is take it.” This is a concept I struggle with constantly, but I’ve been trying to work with this in mind, and I’ve been doing it by Paying if Forward. I’m doing this by small and bigger acts of kindness; buying coffee, offering to watch friends' kids and nieces and volunteering. Perhaps even just being a little bit more friendlier.

I have this old friend in Calgary who I quite adore. In all honesty, I secretly aspire to have pieces of her personality and all of her bold disposition. Her life is anything but ordinary, from running her own boot camp, blasting through half marathons, to partaking in the Yukon River Quest Canoe Race – Twice! She’s got a side kick Golden Retriever and both of them are quite independent. She recently explained that her tenants are very privately dealing with a crippling illness in the family, which is very quickly surpassing four months. With three children and the father being too sick to work, the wife is struggling to hold it together, both emotionally and financially. My friend has done everything she can financially to provide housing, but everyone is so unsure how long this illness is going to go on for. So, while they are applying for government assistance, she, on their behalf, is seeking for help and has set up a Donations Page.

This is a great cause and if you’d like to support it, that would be great, but I am honesty encouraging you to do any act of kindness. I think that being nice makes for a better world because people will follow your lead. Between Global Warming, the Zika Virus, the Alberta Economy collapsing and everyone losing their faith in humanity, I think we could all do for a little more kindness right now.

 

Smiles,

Kirstin 

Kindness doesn't cost a damn thing. Sprinkle that shit everywhere.