Saturday, December 15, 2012

Day 350: Sent Ornaments & Well Wishes To Newtown, Connecticut


I've tried to write this random act a few different times today, but I haven't been able to maintain a stream of thinking that allows me to, so please bear with me if this is all over the place.  In the past 36+ hours since the senseless atrocity took place at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, my emotions have vacillated between sadness and anger.  I've seen these shootings happen time and time again, but never before have my emotions affected me this much.  I keep putting myself in the place of those parents and almost have become physically ill when I do.  When I heard the news, it was hard for me to work because all I wanted to do was go home and squeeze Isla as hard as I could.  Since I started doing these acts, I've woken up and truly looked forward to completing them.  Today was different.  I couldn't even think of something to do, nor did I seem to even want to do one.  This was the closest I have ever gone to missing a day on my mission.  Then I started to think about what could have caused something like the Newtown incident to happen and I realized that now, more than any other day, I had to do a random act.  When I keep seeing these horrible tragedies happen, I keep thinking about how important spreading kindness is, and that maybe, just maybe, a small act could down the line prevent something like this.  It is too important for me to miss doing a random act today.

Earlier, I was on Facebook and I saw a friend who was looking to do something, anything, for the families of the victims.  My friend Katie mentioned how she can't even begin to know what the families are going through, but that she felt compelled to do something to show them her sincere condolences.  She wanted to show them that everyone, not just in Connecticut or the US, but the world, has sympathy for them.  With the holidays coming up, Katie is creating "Peace Be With You" ornaments and has coordinated with a teacher from Sandy Hook to get them to the families of the victims.  So today for my random act of kindness, my family and I are sending one of Katie's ornaments.  If you would like to be a part of this, please email me at 366RandomActs@gmail.com.  As I said yesterday on here, hug your kids.  If you don't have kids, hug someone close to you. And if this blog somehow reaches anyone in the Newtown community, just know that wherever you turn, someone is there for you.

3 comments:

  1. Ryan you have expressed the feelings and emotions of tens of thousands of people worldwide. Please keep spreading the kindness and the love, we so desperately need more of it. Thank you!

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  2. Thank you Ryan from Newtown, CT. We are hurting, devastated, grieving, but we have come together as a community, to cry together, to pay tribute to our heroes and our angels, and to the gather strength to help each other move forward. I have committed to do 26 Random Acts of Kindness in memory of those lost in the tragedy of 12/14/12. Thanks for the love.

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