Wednesday, November 13, 2019

Happy World Kindness Day - sharing a memory about how Mr. Rogers changed my life + some resources

Today, November 13, 2019 is World Kindness Day. Many are wearing a cardigan (in memory to Mr. Rogers) to celebrate this day. If you are on Twitter, a great follow is Mister Rogers quotes.  My wife and I were talking this morning and she shared this quote with me:


A lasting memory (and one that really hits me now) is when I was about 6 years old. My mom called me in from playing outside to ask if I would sit with her and watch Mr. Rogers. Now we had watched Mr. Rogers in our house, but today my mom called me in to watch. So, of course I went in - but I went in with the thought of, "ugh - I don't want to sit here. I want to play football with the guys - they must think I am a baby." 
  I am one of three boys in my family, my brothers are 6 and 7 years older than me and always included me with the "guys" in the neighborhood when we played sports. 

My mom looked at me with almost tears in her eyes asking me to sit with her. I still didn't get it. My mom just wanted to sit and enjoy some wholesome time with a man that embodied the word kindness. I fidgeted and told my mom that I really didn't want to sit there - but I did.

I can still remember my mom voicing what a kind man Mr. Rogers was and how he conducted himself. It was in that conversation I think that everything kind of started to change inside of me. Now granted I was still 6 years old, but the feelings of empathy and showing kindness to others started to grow inside of me. It is a time and a feeling I will never forget.

As a father of two (10 year old Sydney and 7 year old Jack) I try to have those conversations with them. We talk about the kindness we see. We talk about the times we see others not being so kind and how we can handle the situation. Basically, we do our best to share our thoughts and feelings.

While 6 year old me did not want to come in from playing football outside with "the boys", my mom asking me to come in and sharing her thoughts and feelings about Mr. Rogers sure did change my life.

A nice resource to share on this day is Random Acts of Kindness.   On this site you will find ways to get inspired, lesson plans, resources, a blog, etc.  I found the image below by clicking on their kindness day section - https://www.randomactsofkindness.org/world-kindness-day


One more image to share is this one below.



I hope you all have a great day today and spread a little bit of kindness to others!
Brad




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