On Acts of Kindness

Okay, I admit it: I haven't "exactly" been tracking my acts of kindness. Now, don't get me wrong, I've been doing them, I just haven't been writing them down every day (like I'm supposed to be doing). But I'm pretty sure I get at least three AOKs in during the course of each day.

There's one AOK that I do every day: Each and every time I go into the park across the street from my house — and I'm usually in there two times a day — I pick up some trash. Sometimes I pick up a lot (like the other day, when I cleaned up a full barrell of garbage that someone knocked over on purpose); sometimes I pick up an empty soday can, or a plastic bag, or some broken glass.

It's a never-ending battle, and sometimes it seems uphill. Every day I pick something up, and every day there's something new that wasn't there the day before. It's frustrating, but I know my efforts are worth something. It reminds me of a passage I read recently in the Tao Te Ching:

What is a good man but a bad man's teacher?

What is a bad man but a good man's job?

If the teacher is not respected

and the student not cared for,

confusion will arise, however clever one is.

This is the great secret.

In the end, I simply try to leave the park a little bit better than it was when I walked in. My daughter sees me doing this, and I know I'm setting a positive example.

Sometimes I pick up newspapers off one of the park benches, even though I know they served as a blanket for some homeless person who spent the night sleeping there. Even in my cleaning I feel a pinch of compassion.

This week, I picked up a small notebook for writing down my daily AOKs. And in the back, I've started a list of things to be grateful for. "A bed to sleep in every night" made the list today.