To inspire more acts of kindness. 

The naked honesty when you look at dripping tears clinging to a friend’s eyelashes. The relief kindled by the slight touch of a loved ones’ fingers at the top of your clenched fist. The comfort of melted chocolate on a chilly winters’ night. The instant cheeriness inspired by the lyrics “I’ve got sunshine on a cloudy day. When it’s cold outside, I’ve got the month of May.”

These are the feelings we hope to induce with the new column ‘Random Acts of Kindness’; a feel-lighter-than-air space that’s here to both induce kindness and appreciate it [When was the last time you heard someone describe a friend as ‘kind’?]

Kindness is often seen as something we engage in when we want to feel good about ourselves, providing inner satisfaction at knowing we are good people. At B-Change, we argue, even if you begin behaving kindly towards friends and strangers with selfish intentions, it doesn’t matter. Regardless of the grounds, the effect it has is rippling, stirring and of course, inspiring. Bearing witness to its effects can make you more inclined to compassion and far more open to love [selfless, at that].

We thought we could use a bit of kind sunshine in the U.A.E. So, here’s hoping that this section will garner a couple of smiles, a handful of hugs and an abundance of kind acts. As Gandalf so elegantly puts it in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey:

Saruman believes it is only great power that can hold evil in check, but that is not what I have found. I found it is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay. Small acts of kindness and love.

Tell us if you’ve been at the receiving end of, witnessed or performed a random act of kindness. Send your entries to zhasan@b-change.me and make your kindness contagious.