"Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, you'll find one at the end of your arm. As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands. One for helping yourself, the other for helping others."
— Audrey Hepburn


We all have the power to make a difference in the lives of others. Through our intentions and actions, we choose to bring positive experiences into our lives and those of others.

We can all do something. Do what you can. Do what looks like it needs doing. Do it your own way. Do it because you want to. Do something because you know you can.

Each day this week, decide to extend a gesture of kindness to someone in your life. Think about this as an opportunity to be kind to all the people who touch your life in some way or another: your family, friends, coworkers, bus driver, mail person, delivery person, neighbor and even the lady at the checkout counter at the grocery store. Your act of kindness doesn't have to be a big something—it can be small, but it will have a huge impact.

Here are some ideas to get you started:

• Bake your favorite cookies and give them out.
• Pick a few flowers and leave them on the windshield of your neighbor's car.
• Email a friend with some photos you took.
• Call your mother.
• Smile and say thank you at a check-out counter.
• Help a young mom manage with small kids in the grocery store.
• Be polite to solicitors on the phone.
• Share the bounty of your garden.
• Send a thank-you note.
• Water a friend's garden while he or she is away.
• Offer to help someone.

Have the kind of week where kindness flourishes.