Monday, July 27 is International Kindness Project Day.
THE SANSONE FAMILY SHARING KINDNESS DAY
As I have the last 4 years, I will be placing 100 roses for the Children Gone Too Soon at the Angel of Hope in Scottsdale as my annual Kindness Day Memorial for the MISS Foundation..Join Me if You Like ! In Memory of Dawn Marie Sansone and All the Children Gone Too Soon
Live your life as a memorial to your beloved dead.
- Joanne Cacciatore
Tomorrow is International Kindness Project Day, a day when grievers around the world from the U.S. to England to Paraguay to Botswana to Canada to New Zealand will come together to bring their loved one's presence back into the world so that they are remembered.
I never imagined, when I started the Kindness Project in the summer of 1997, that millions of kindness projects would be committed around the globe.
This project was born in my heart on Christmas eve of 1994. I knew I couldn't spend the money that was rightfully Cheyenne's on my other children. So I took that money and bought toys for underprivileged children, and I delivered them alone the day before Christmas. I dropped them off, wanting as much anonymity as possible, got back in my car hurriedly, and wept for nearly an hour.
It was bittersweet, though much more bitter than sweet at this point.
Some months later, I was in a shoe store buying back-to-school shoes for my children. I overheard a family debating which ones of their many children needed shoes more than the others. They all needed them, commented the parents, but they couldn't afford them. I found the store manager, bought a gift card with enough funds on it to pay for all the children's shoes, wrote on a little piece of paper "in memory of Chey", and I quickly left before he gave them the surprise.
It was only 18 months later that the MISS Foundation was born. I didn't name the MISS Foundation - or any of our programs- after Cheyenne. I chose, specifically, not to do that.
Similarly, I valued helping others anonymously, knowing in my heart that Chey's death had left me with a greater sense of compassion and agape for others, but not wanting to be recognized for it. Truly, it was not about some act of nobility. It was pure love for my child, a strong desire to make meaning, and newfound- profound- compassion for others. I wanted to be her hands and feet in the world. I wanted others to know that this little child lived, this little child died, and this little child continued to matter.
And so my anonymous giving grew. And as it did, the paralyzing grief was balanced by something more numinous, more reflexive, and I felt something in the core of my being- something inexplicable- moving me.
At some point, I realized these acts- both the little and the big- were helping me to cope.
And, I thought perhaps it could help others who were bereaved. Because simply, we cannot serve others without serving ourselves. We cannot give to another without giving to ourselves. We cannot bring comfort to another without bringing comfort to ourselves.
The Kindness Project was born about a year after the inception of the MISS Foundation. Born of pain. Born of compassion. Born of a love bigger than death.
And today, now 21 years later, it is much more sweet than bitter.
I invite you all to join us. For them. For each of us. For the entire world.
Please visit http://www.missfoundation.org/support/kindness to print your FREE cards in English and Spanish and join us in this project tomorrow and every day.
You can also "Like" our Kindness Project page to get updates on the amazing stories we receive from around the world!
Imagine this:
All around the world,
on this one day of the year,
mourners will be transforming their grief into a
powerful message of love, hope, peace, and kindness!
