Did you know October 5^th is Do Something Nice Day? (Not to be confused with Random Acts of Kindness Day, which falls on February 17^th).

There seem to be an average of five or six various ‘holiday’s’ celebrated every single day of the year on nationaldaycalendar.com, not to mention National Weeks and/or Months recognizing people, places, or things.

Upon discovering most days are not only a National Day of something-or-other, but a National Day of many-something-or-others, I was admittedly disappointed. I mean, how do special days stand out as special if every day is recognized as a National observance of something? It’s as though once people realized days could be officially doled out and delineated celebrating people or causes, they scampered to register every group, movement, object, and thought process for their twenty-four hours of fame. Seriously, I think there may be only five or six possibilities left which don’t have a National Day recognizing them.

I, however, had an actual attitude adjustment when I saw Do Something Nice Day listed on the calendar. I mean, who can take issue with doing something nice? As a matter of fact, it brought to mind a social experiment a Pastor asked our congregation to do many years ago; -pay the tab for the car behind you in the Starbucks drive-thru. It was such a good feeling, simply surprising someone with an unexpected freebie, a rudimentary reminder that the human species has a heart; -that we’re not all jerks with the sole goal of cutting each other off in traffic. I don’t do it every time, and I don’t go through drive-thru’s as often as I did when juggling a job, ministry, and two young children, but I’ve been known to pick up the tab for those behind me at not only Starbucks, but other drive-thru establishments as well.

Warms the cockles of your heart, doesn’t it?

It does mine anyway, and it will warm your cockles too. But of course, you already know that from those times you’ve done nice things in the past.

This quote, “Real generosity is doing something nice for someone who will never find out” ~Frank A. Clark, was posted online with the calendar listing. I had no idea who Frank was until I Googled him, but he makes a good point. We’ve become a society of anonymous people who rarely remember to greet each other with as much as a smile or even nod, let alone a friendly ‘hello’. Drowning in deadlines and busy-ness, we as a people (speaking for myself at least), could use the occasional reminder to be human.

On that note, I’m heading off to Starbucks for a tall White Chocolate Mocha, and to pay a strangers tab. What will you do to celebrate Do Something Nice Day? Post your ideas in the comments; -it never hurts to have something nice to do at the ready.