Life Lessons: Random acts of kindness

The qualities I learned as a young boy from my parents were to behave, be polite, listen attentively and always be respectful and kind to others. Kindness is a trait that shows the best part of human nature. I always enjoyed the feeling of being accepted by others and being treated nicely and with respect. Children learn very early in school that they need to cooperate and act in a proper way and to learn to share and be kind with one another. You learn that you should treat others the way you wish to be treated. I remember my parents were always kind to my sisters and I and they always made us feel special.

When I became a dad I knew I had a tremendous responsibility to my son and I knew I would have to teach him the very important lessons in life and show him how to conduct himself and to always live his life being wise to the ways of the world and to always show his good side and find it within himself to always be kind and sincere to his teachers, his classmates, his friends and his family and to always exercise proper judgement in all that he does.

To me the world is a tough place and we all have to have coping skills to survive and we need to bring out the best in ourselves and always work to achieve and strive to do our absolute best. If we wish to find some joy in this world we need to experience random acts of kindness so we can feel that we are not always alone and that people do care. It seems we sometimes have this mentality that it is us as individuals and we are all alone and have to be strong and totally rely on ourselves to make it. If we reach out to others and show kindness we certainly will receive it in return and we will feel the world can be a better place.

If we always feel alone we will most certainly feel overwhelmed at times and may experience times of frustration and discouragement and may wind up not doing as well as we have the potential to. If we feel we are supported and have a common goal with camaraderie, friendship, encouragement and kindness we certainly will feel an edge that will certainly make a difference in how we perceive things and how we perform.

Life is too short to feel we have to go it alone. We need a support base and friends to bring out our best and we all need to realize that this world would be a far better place if we all displayed random acts of kindness to one another.

Edward D. Iannielli III