Don't Return a Kindness, Pass It On

I have a friend who works in a psychologist's office. Actually, I think it's a group of psychologists, and she checks in patients and deals with paperwork. According to her, there is more activity there at this time of year than any other. She said she cannot believe how depressed people are, and how awful it is to see them go through it.

It makes sense. It's dark and dreary out (in the Northeast anyway!), the holidays have come and gone (and many people don't have family or friends to celebrate with). What's next? Well, I'll tell you---months of working and being cold and having it be dark early in the evening and in the morning too.

So, we're all in the same boat on this one. Could we possibly make the next few months a little more pleasant for someone else?

Up until she moved recently, my Mom had two little slates displayed in her house. One, written by my great aunt in the '80s, said, "Have you had your hot fudge today?" The other one said, "Don't return a kindness, pass it on." It reminds me of the movie Pay It Forward----spread out the goodness to others. Could we really make a difference by doing this? I think so.

Examples:
A woman at work told me about sharing her sub with a classmate one night in her evening college course---she didn't know the woman, but why not?

My sister used to hire the young son of a co-worker (who didn't have a lot of money) to do odd jobs around her house (that she could easily have done herself), and then she would feed him and take him home at the end of the day.

What can you do this week that would make someone else's life easier, and to also remind them that not everything is dark and cold in the winter?