It's hard to believe it's December already. I was thinking that I want to do something special on my blog this month until Christmas. 'Tis the season of giving. On Thanksgiving morning, my family and I went to church and the priest told us a little story:

One day a woman carrying an armful of groceries got on the subway and a man stood up to offer her his seat. She was so surprised that she fainted. People rushed to help revive her. Once she regained consciousness, she sat up and looked at the man who offered her the seat. "Thank you," she said. Then, the man fainted.

I thought this was a memorable story because, although it's probably an exaggeration, it shows how common courtesies are not as common as they should be. A simple act of kindness goes a long way. A simple expression of gratitude means a lot. I like the commercial on tv of a rewinded scene in which one person does something nice for a stranger because she saw that someone else performed a courtesy, and so on and so forth. I really like the the concept of random acts of kindness. It could mean opening the door for someone or helping someone pick up some papers they might have dropped.

This month, I am going to pay tribute to acts of kindness that I witness or hear of. We always hear of or read about the horrible things people do to each other on the news. Why not talk about the good things we do for each other? My hope is that this will remind us all that there is still kindness and generosity in this world if we just take the time to look around us once in a while. It might sound sappy, but it's true.