Tales about people being kind to one another have been popular and frequent in social media and now more of us are urged to do the same under the umbrella term of Random Acts of Kindness, something akin to the good deed of the day for which the Boy Scouts (to give them their old title in the UK but still current name in the USA) were renowned.

One example was highlighted by the daughter of an elderly man who had gone shopping by himself. He had got what he wanted, waited to be served at the checkout and reached the cashier, all his shopping had been scanned and packed. All he needed to do was pay but, horror, he then realised he had left his wallet at home.

Imagine how the poor man must have felt! But not for long as the woman right behind him insisted on paying for his shopping, saying that she was sure that he had been kind to others in his life and that it was now her turn to be kind and his turn to be on the receiving end.

What a wonderful random act of kindness.

There are so many other examples that there is absolutely no way that even a small cross-section can be mentioned here but I must recount one that I heard about recently. This was on Facebook and concerned a young boy who had previously lost both his parents and was living with his aunt. Naturally sad, he just wanted to be happy again. A worthy cause for random act of kindness, I am sure you will agree.

But nothing could be further from his mind. Instead, he asked his aunt if she would buy him some toys, he didn’t want anything big or expensive, just small toys that wouldn’t break the bank. The good aunt agreed and took the young boy shopping.

Once he had the toys, he suddenly started giving them away to other people he met in the street while his aunt looked on, somewhat bemused I have no doubt.

Asked why he had done that, his reply was classic. He said he had got fed up with so many sad faces around him; he just wanted to see some happy smiles again!

All of a sudden, or maybe I have just not noticed it before, there are social media sites actually promoting random acts of kindness and it would be unfair of me to single out one over another but if you are on Twitter, please check out #randomactsofkindness as most sites seem to be found there.

Just imagine what could be achieved if everyone performed just one such random act of kindness. It could be the first step towards creating a more caring world in which it is normal that we look out for one another. What a great place that would be.

Worldwide Kindness Day is Friday 13th November while International Acts of Kindness Week starts on 9th and runs to 15th February and includes St Valentine’s Day (and, note to self, my wife Lisa’s birthday) but there is no need to wait until either of those dates. Perform a random act of kindness as soon as you find someone with a need for one.