Ten Ways to Be an Angel
- Invest in Someone
Generosity is giving more than you can, and pride is taking less than you need. --Khalil Gibran
Donate to a charity or provide financial support (whether temporary or ongoing) to someone who needs a money miracle. When your heart nudges you to offer a check or cash, listen to it! Don't only give to get something in return.
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There is more hunger for love and appreciation in this world than for bread. --Mother Teresa
Remind soldiers and sailors of home by sending letters and care packages filled with fun, practical, and personal items like postcards of their hometown, their favorite gum, or recent family photos printed on playing cards. Send what they may not be able to find overseas.
- Lend an Earful of Love
The first duty of love is to listen.
--Paul Tillich
Remember to be patient and just listen when a friend needs you. Don't be eager to offer advice or be quick with your opinions. Instead, remember that sometimes listening can speak more than talking.
- Save Our Pets
The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.
--Mahatma Gandhi
Homeless pets need love and help in finding food and shelter. Get involved with your local ASPCA or adopt a pet from an animal shelter or from a friend who can no longer take care of it. Sandra M. Williams of
- Lighten Up a Hospital
The sole meaning of life is to serve humanity. --Leo Tolstoy
Want to provide for someone ill and in need of more than medical care? Join a group that organizes visits for patients in hospitals, such as St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, or visit someone you know who is ill. Instead of flowers and balloons, offer prayer sessions, a jigsaw puzzle, or favorite CDs.
- Be a Kindred Spirit
We are not put on this earth for ourselves, but are placed here for each other. If you are there always for others, then in time of need, someone will be there for you. --Jeff Warner
Slowly break out of your comfort zone by offering coffee to a coworker or asking a neighbor to join your book club. A new best friend may be waiting in the cubicle next to you or in the next pew at your house of worship.
- Sign Up for a Prison Pen Pal
Communication leads to community, that is, to understanding, intimacy, and mutual valuing. --Rollo May
Want to put your stationery and stamps to good use? Rediscover snail mail by writing to men and women in prisons. Proceed with caution and join a safe, established organization such as Prison Fellowship or Jewish Prisoner Services International that provides friendship and help to inmates.
- Tuck Away an 'Anyday' Gift
Great opportunities to help others seldom come, but small ones surround us daily.
--Sally Koch
Gifts don't have to be big (or for a holiday) in order to elicit a brilliant smile. See a bookmark or a box of tea that reminds you of someone? Buy the item and give it to that person—just because.
- Start a Blessing Chain
Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.
--Leo Buscaglia
"Pay it forward" by being part of a domino effect of cascading kindnesses. As an old adage reminds us, "a little goes a long way." Offer someone a blessing and tell them to pass it on.
- Surround Someone With Wings
Occasionally in life there are those moments of unutterable fulfillment which cannot be completely explained by those symbols called words. Their meanings can only be articulated by the inaudible language of the heart. --Martin Luther King, Jr.
It might be awkward to hug a stranger. Still, any form of gentle touch, especially hugs, has the potential to promote a calmer, less anxious society. Of course, you wouldn't bear-hug the person next to you in a movie theater, but you could try giving him or her a "mental" hug by radiating positive energy in that direction.
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