I am bursting with pride and happiness today for two big reasons: My mom and my daughter. First off, I was running late this morning because the baby had a rough night and morning because he didn’t want me to put him down. When my mom showed up for me to head to work this morning I still had him in the baby carrier and was making the kid’s school lunches. I was tired and frustrated and still had to pump before I could head out the door to my early morning staff meeting. Needless to say, I was not in the best mood when I got in my car knowing I was late for staff meeting and would have to do the walk of shame in front of all of my co-workers.

When I got in my car there was a note on my steering wheel that simply said, “You are amazing!” in big handwritten letters. At first, I was taken by surprise because I couldn’t think of who would have put it there because my car was in my garage and I knew it wasn’t my husband’s or daughter’s writing. I hurried on my way to work (Slurping down my FabFour green smoothie on the drive) and just before I pulled in the school parking lot it hit me that my mom must have put it there on her way in the house that morning. It made my heart so happy to know that she had been thinking of me and had noticed and appreciated how hard I had been trying to be a good mom with a newborn and going back to work. I text her a quick thank you on my way to the meeting. My entire attitude for the day had been changed by a simple act of service and kindness.   

When I got home it got even better because my daughter came in from the bus and immediately told me, “Thank you for the note mom it made me so happy!” I had to tell her that I hadn’t sent her a note today and that it must have been a grandma. She was even more excited that my mom had sent it and not me. She proceeded to tell me that the note made her so happy that she had written her teacher’s name on it and left in on the teacher’s desk when she left school. My seven-year-old was beaming with happiness as she was telling me all about how she passed it on so that she could make her teacher feel as happy as the note had made her feel. Now that is the power of service and passing it on! She felt just as good getting the note as she did giving it and it was a great opportunity for us to talk about how amazing it feels to give kindness to others.

It gets even better because the next day I got a text from my sister and my grandma both beaming with happiness and compliments along with a picture of the same kind of note left in their cars. Unfortunately, I had to fess up that it wasn’t me that left them the note, but my mom had made me happy all over again because she had spread joy to more people that I love dearly. It really struck me that small acts of service and kindness really can make a big difference and if we continue to pay it forward. Taking the time to give service is worth it because it can make others happy, but I think we often forget that when we serve others we bring more happiness into our own lives as well. 

This is definitely one area that I would like to improve on. I challenge you this week to focus on service at least one day during your “Happy Hour” time and sit down and handwrite a few sticky notes with things like, “You are amazing!” and “You are beautiful!” Leave them for people you care about to find. I think you will be surprised by all of the good that will come from something so simple. You don’t need to take the credit but you should take all the feel-goods that it brings you knowing you made someone else happy. How much better would the world be if we all just kept paying it forward!