Random Acts of Kindness Inspired by Miss Rumphius

When I was in third grade I distinctly remember coming in from lunch every day and our teacher reading a book to us about different random acts of kindness. I was hooked. I looked forward to hearing a new story every day and couldn’t wait to be a grown up and do those types of things for people. Now that I am grown up, I realize I have only actually done a random act of kindness a handful of times. What brought all this up for me was reading the book Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney.

Miss Rumphius’ late grandfather told her stories that inspired her to do three things when she grew up: travel to faraway places, live by the sea, and do something to make the world more beautiful. When she grew up she indeed accomplished all those things, the last of which she did by spreading Lupine flower seeds along the coast. With that simple act, she indeed made the world more beautiful!

It was that last request that Miss Rumphius’ grandfather had made, to “do something to make the world more beautiful,” that also inspired and challenged me. It brought me back to third grade and reminded me of when my teacher had similarly inspired and challenged me to perform random acts of kindness for people. I knew this was the perfect time to perform those acts, but I also desired to do something that my boys could be involved in, as you are never too young to learn how to bless others! Besides involving my boys, I wanted to incorporate flowers into our acts of kindness since this was also about the beautiful thing Miss Rumphius had done, but I didn’t think lupine would take well to our southern California drought (and people may not appreciate me planting random flowers on their property!), so I settled with spreading store bought carnations in random places! Of course, we also added a tag that read “Do something to make the world more beautiful” – Miss Rumphius”

Get thee FREE printable tags here!

 A dozen carnations and tags later, and we were ready to leave these encouraging notes and flowers for strangers to find! The boys were excited helpers and kept saying, “We are leaving surprises to make people happy!!” It was wonderful to see that these acts of kindness brought them joy as well <3

We left flowers on bikes and bike racks, mailboxes and lock boxes, bus stops and donation centers…

…newspaper stands, park entrances, and a fair share of car windshields also received out notes!

We enjoyed our deliveries so much, we can’t wait to do it again! I love the thought that those simple acts may have inspired others to “do something to make the world more beautiful” as well! If you want to do something similar, you can download the free circle tags and use them how you’d like to spread beauty and encouragement in your city!

And don’t forget to enter the giveaway we have sponsored by Necsock Farms! She will choose 6 winners to receive Lupine flower seeds from her garden and a copy of the book Miss Rumphius!