A Random Act of Skywriting Kindness

This past Valentine's Day, an anonymous person created a series of skywriting images above New Orleans.

The messages said things like, "Love U," U + God," and even a smiley face. It was a nice random act of kindness that brightened many people's day.

It's a small thing but actually the kind of nice act that makes a difference. For those who saw the messages, the benefits of receiving a positive little affirmation can have real effects on our daily happiness.

Feelings are highly contagious. Amazingly, for every person who actually saw this message as it happened and was positively affected by it--even just a little bit--there were dozens of people indirectly uplifted. When we feel good, we pass that along to all those we come into contact with and then those people pass it along to the people they come into contact with.

Just as importantly is all the research that shows the benefits that we receive when we act kindly towards others and/or offer acts of service--even small ones--to our fellow humans. Our acts of kindness not only help the recipients but research proves that they boost our own happiness and sense of purpose, too.

So to whoever this anonymous skywriter was, let's use this inspiration and reminder to do our own act of kindness today, in whatever manner or scale, and see if we can notice the results, in ourselves and those around us.