Random Acts of Kindness

The Goodness Gorillas is a story about the children in one school who discover that “ guerrilla  is a word that people use when they are part of a group that is trying to change something.”  It all started when I shared a video clip with my daughter that was sent to me from one of my Twitter followers. Now I should preface my remarks by saying that there are a lot of parents in the Twitter Universe who follow the things I write for my practice. Many of them share my ideas for raising healthy kids and for creative parenting with friends. On occasion they offer ideas of their own.

KindnessGirl.com  is the mother of four children, a writer and a photographer, and a lover of berries. She planted the seed of this parenting idea recently, and it has really begun to grow. She maintains that it is important to teach our children to think of other people and to be purposeful about doing nice things, to leave the world a better place than you found it.  This concept of “guerrilla goodness” is the moral of our book.  It was surprising, and in a way, infectious that her simple idea spread through the children in our neighborhood so quickly. As it turns out, she is moving into our neighborhood, and I can’t wait to spread the word.

Take a peek, first a the video that she sent to me. Then you’ll see why we pulled out our copy of The Goodness Gorillas.

The second video clip is my own daughter’s attempt to capture the essence of “guerrilla goodness.”  It was one of the healthiest things I’ve done so far this summer.  We had so much fun making bread and sun-dried tomato pesto, but we had the most meaningful moments in giving away the kindness.

I started to write the blog this week about Emotional Intelligence having recently picked up Daniel Goleman’s Emotional Intelligence:  Why It Can Matter More Than IQ,” but somehow I got very caught up in living the concept rather than writing about it.  The Goodness Gorillas and guerrlla kindness really speak about developing emotional maturity and the inner wisdom that comes from thinking about how others will feel.  It is not a new idea that, in raising healthy children, we must be committed to their emotional health just as we are to their physical health.  Life gives us lots of opportunities to teach empathy, kindness, and respect.  When children begin early on to think of themselves as responsible and resilient, it’s easy to see them joyous in doing for others.

So join us!  We’re enriching our emotional intelligence this week with random acts of kindness.

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