best things to do if you're feeling like a grinch

guess i am just feeling the need to believe in the goodness of people right now. with a very busy & difficult holiday season on the way, we all need to believe in goodness ... you better be good for goodness sake!!! absolutely.

here are some things i would recommend for really getting yourself into the holiday spirit:

• watch "it's a wonderful life" (with an entire box of tissues)
• buy a small random gift & leave it on a neighbor's doorstep
• make donations or plant trees as your friends' gifts
• sit on santa's lap
• sing carols at the top of your lungs while stopped at a red light
• write a letter to santa & include the really important christmas wishes
• change the ringtone & ringback on your phone to something holiday-y
• create holiday playlists
• cut out paper snowflakes & decorate your office
• bake cookies, brownies, breads, anything to share with friends & family
• be sure to send cards ... ecards or snail mail ... either will make someone smile today
• hold the door open for someone ... especially if he/she is carrying lots of packages or bags
• remember to say "bless you" when someone sneezes ... even if they don't acknowledge it
• drink hot chocolate by a fireplace

helping a friend

that's what random acts of kindness is all about, isn't it? helping someone ... anyone ... a friend or a stranger ... just being thoughtful enough to do SOMETHING.
last week, i found out that a friend from high school and elementary school was very badly injured after a hit & run accident the night after thanksgiving ... and since then, his facebook page had been lit up with prayers & well wishes & hopeful thoughts ... people have joined together in just over a week to create an amazing fundraising event & hand out flyers to try to find out who could have done it ... who can hit someone & just drive away???
amazing the dicotomy of human beings, isn't it?!?!
so if you haven't heard about this tragedy, the man's name is brian hickey, a 1991 graduate of haddon township high school in new jersey ... he was living in philadelphia with his wife ... a freelance writer and constant friend ... he was hit while walking back to the speedline from a local pub where he had met some old friends for a mini-reunion, about a block from the collingswood patco station, around 10:15 pm.
so now it is your turn to do something to help ... if anyone knows anything, if any local mechanic or car shop has had a car in very recently with new damage, if it was you .... please call collingswood police & do the right thing.
as a freelance writer, brian has a lot of friends who are much more eloquent than i, and if you search his name, i am sure you will find many other articles, memories, thoughts, blogs about this story .... all it takes is one random act of kindness to rescue someone from despair.