My Ripple Kindness Project
I started following the Ripple facebook page back in 2013 when I first found I was in a very tough place in my life. I found the stories people shared, where doing and receiving kindness, incredibly uplifting and was inspired to participate. Living in a remote rural area, I was unsure of what I could do but the page gave me lots of great ideas, many that cost nothing or very little. So I started to create ripples of my own.
My latest ripple began very small and through a chance meeting…
There are all these pearl parties that are all the fashion on facebook live right now. My friend saw one and wanted something but would never buy it herself so I put an order in for a pendant so I could gift my friend a special gift. By chance, I won a viewer’s draw and won some cages and pearls and then the same night I won the buyers draw which was for a $25 dollar voucher to spend with them. So, the next live, I spent my voucher on “Hatch Me an Oyster” which is where you buy eggs and you have a 50/50 chance of winning a prize inside. I won another $20 voucher, 7 surprise pendants and a few pearls!!
I decided that the ones I had won would become my new ripple of kindness. Well, I became good friends with the girls who run the facebook page and they donated so many beautiful things to me so I could get started on my latest Ripple (when I sold my goats at market I kept the money from two of them to put towards my Ripple Kindness Project).
I started putting together little gift bags and was up to 42 packs when another person on the pearl group donated another small group of pendants to increase the number of packs I could send out. Many of the girls in the group could not understand why I was getting pearls and pendants when I don’t do jewelry in any form at all and eventually I told them why I was collecting. The girls now have decided that from every third order they receive they will donate either a Pearl Cage or key ring towards my Ripple Kindness Project. I am very lucky to have some much support because without everyone’s generosity I would not have been able to do this on the scale that I am. I have also been able to share the Ripple Kindness page for others to like and read and share. I understand that a Ripple can be started for free, just with a simple smile or hello and I posted a Ripple Kindness Card on their page so people could go and see what Ripple is all about and how it’s influenced my life.
I’m doing this mostly because it gives me hope that I can somehow, from a distance, make someone smile. In some ways, it is selfish because with each pack I send, I feel pride, hope and peace within my own sometimes difficult world.
I have beautiful friends who live in different cities and I send them each 10 packs to distribute for me. Their mission is to leave them anonymously in places they can be found. A few know a number of people who are really struggling and needing some hope. They will hang theirs on their front doors.
This has taken nearly 6 months to complete but, you see… I’m sending out 52 kindness packs and if each person receiving one does one kind thing, this ripple will just keep going. It warms my heart and touches my soul and it gives me balance. What more can you ask for than to brighten someone’s day and bring a smile to their faces?
Ripple has inspired me to keep creating these little packs of joy and I wanted you to see what your page is still doing after all these years. I truly love you and thank you for saving my life in my worst times. My Ripples of Kindness are my way of paying the love I’ve received from the page forward and hopefully encourage others to start their own Ripples as well. – Anon xox