An act of kindness that I did this week that had a big impact was that I made my brother Nick a birthday tribute on Instagram. A birthday tribute is where you post a photo or video of the person whose birthday it is, along with a caption declaring how happy you are for them on their special day. I created for my brother a flip-o-gram (a video made up of lots of pictures). I must have spent at least twenty minutes on the music to accompany it alone. You see, my brother has proclaimed that he doesn't like music. Now this made it very difficult to pick a song to go with the tribute. I have heard him singing a few movie songs, but those were not available. So I ended up picking Pompeii, by Bastille, of which I had a vague recollection of him humming. Well I posted the tribute to Instagram, and forgot about it. But when I got home, Nick came straight up to me ad gave me a big hug, and thanked me profusely for the tribute. He had tears in his eyes, and said that he really had not expected that from me on his birthday.
It surprised me that this action that I had thought so trivial had affected him that much. It made me think about how I treat him, and how I should treat him. I realized that I can be very dismissive and rude to him at times, and that can make him believe that I don't care about him, or that I don't want him around. Because of that I have made the decision to make my brother my broken relationship. I have resolved to be nicer to him, and treat him as an equal. And I hope by the time next year rolls around, he won't be quite so surprised that I have made him another birthday tribute.
But this reaction Nick had also made me think about how far an action goes. One little thing that you do, such as posting a birthday tribute, can make all the difference in a persons life. And you might not even know it. I recently read an article, it was a true story, about two guys. Lets call them Matt and Steve, and how they became friends.
One day Matt was walking home, when he noticed other kids bullying Steve. Steve was a loner kid who didn't really have many friends. Matt had never met Steve, but jogged on over and told the bullies to get lost any way. Steve was bringing all his books home, and when Matt noticed that he decided to help him out. Well the two become great friends, and Steve became very popular among the student body. When graduation rolled around, Steve had prepared a speech. In his speech he said that the weekend that Matt met him, Matt had saved his life. He was bringing home his books because he was going to commit suicide, and he didn't want his mom to have to clean out his locker. When Matt ran over, stood up for him and offered to help him carry his stuff home, that became friends. And Steve realized that life might be worth living after all. All this time Matt knew none of this. And, yet, he had still managed to save Steve. This is how our little actions can have very big effects, and sometimes even change peoples lives.
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