{"id":6672,"date":"2020-02-24T19:04:00","date_gmt":"2020-02-25T00:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/?p=6672"},"modified":"2020-12-02T11:16:26","modified_gmt":"2020-12-02T16:16:26","slug":"365206-40-days-of-just-kindness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/365206-40-days-of-just-kindness\/","title":{"rendered":"365+#206: 40 Days of Just Kindness"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I\u2019ve spent a week pondering how to make this coming Lent count. It has not been a quick or easy discernment. (That\u2019s why last week\u2019s blog was on 6 simple environmental tips. I wanted to share simple stuff before starting on a more rigorous routine.) Are you ready for Lent 2020?<\/p>\n

In addition to my usual Lenten commitment of skipping deserts, I ended up with 5 actions I wanted to take to become a better person.\"\"<\/a>
\n1. Eat a vegetarian diet<\/span><\/strong>
\n2. Avoid single use plastics<\/span><\/strong>
\n3. Use more public transportation<\/span><\/strong>
\n4. Interact more directly with people in need<\/span><\/strong>
\n5. Continue to prune more stuff from my home
\n<\/strong><\/span>My hope was that the above actions would deepen me spiritually by focusing on others and reducing pride.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>However, I wasn\u2019t sure how to keep all these grand goals in focus so they didn\u2019t just fade away. The ideas were broad and often unrelated. (The first 3 connected to my environmental commitment, #4 connected with my desire to serve the poor, and #5 was a realization that I still have stuff that I don\u2019t need. When I die someone else is going to have to go through my stuff and\u00a0memorabilia. I needed a unifying principle<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve always been fond of Micah 6:8: \u201cTo do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God.<\/em>\u201d
\nMy tweak is: DO A DAILY ACT OF KINDNESS TO ANOTHER PERSON, CREATION, MYSELF<\/strong>
\n\u2013 In short: Just<\/em><\/span> Kindness<\/em><\/strong>. That\u2019s my vision.
\nNow I need a plan for how to do at least one act of justice or kindness a day for 40 days.
\n\"\"<\/a>1. Eat a vegetarian diet:<\/span><\/strong> I typically eat a meat sandwich for lunch. That shouldn\u2019t be hard to change. For dinner we only have meat once or twice a week. No problem, EXCEPT that Jim is usually the cook. I\u2019m in negotiation with him but I can commit to most of the 40 days.
\n2. Avoid single use plastics:<\/span><\/strong> Because Jim cooks he usually does most of the grocery shopping. Yesterday I had to pick up a few extras and was amazed at how hard it was to avoid plastic wrapping or containers. This will be a challenge but \u201cavoid\u201d is the key word here. I\u2019m not trying for 100%, just trying to reduce. How low can I go? Click here<\/a><\/span> for video clips about plastics.
\n3. Use more public transportation:<\/span><\/strong> Taking the bus is both ecological and puts me face to face with many people who don\u2019t have a choice because they are poor. Thus, it addresses both goal #3 and #4. However, it takes extra time. I work at home so there are not many places I need to go and most destinations involve a transfer. Solution: \u201cMore\u201d needn\u2019t be !00%. I think I can commit to doing this at least once during Lent to see how it feels.
\n4. Interact more directly with people in need:<\/strong><\/span> I\u2019ve already committed to tutoring one day a week at a low income school. Once a month I prepare meals and eat with the guests at the Catholic Worker House. I just bought additional Kroger food cards to more regularly give to panhandlers I encounter about 2-3 times a week. Probably one of these things will happen at least 20 days out of the 40.
\n5. Continue to prune more stuff from my home:<\/strong><\/span> On days that 1<\/span><\/strong>, 2<\/span><\/strong>, 3<\/span><\/strong>, or 4<\/span><\/strong> have not happened, I commit to identify at least one item that I no longer need to give away. This also doubles as an act of justice and kindness.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

But, how to assure busyness doesn\u2019t prompt procrastination and backsliding?
\nHere are 2 strategies for developing a habit:<\/p>\n

The T.A.G.S. approach
\n<\/strong>\u2022 T<\/strong>ell\/Promise someone (I\u2019m telling you now \ud83d\ude42 )
\n\u2022 A<\/strong>ward yourself \u2013 find a pleasing prompt to trigger your habit (Your blog comments can help.)
\n\u2022 G<\/strong>round it in a root value \u2013 faith, justice, love. the common good (Check myself during prayer.)
\n\u2022 S<\/strong>mall steps (It\u2019s only 40 days. I will survive.)<\/p>\n

The S.I.P. approach –\u00a0<\/strong>How to motivate yourself to change your behavior<\/a><\/span> –\u00a0<\/strong>a TED Talk by Tali Sharot (watch especially from 9:40-16:48)
\n\u2022 S<\/strong>ocial incentives
\n\u2022 I<\/strong>mmediate rewards
\n\u2022 P<\/strong>rogress monitoring<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>So what’s this all have to do with YOU?<\/strong>
\n\u2022 <\/strong>Review your own life.
\n\u2022 <\/strong>What practice(s) would you<\/em> like to turn into positive habits?
\n\u2022 <\/strong>What has helped you in the past? (Let the rest of us know.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve spent a week pondering how to make this coming Lent count. It has not been a quick or easy discernment. (That\u2019s why last week\u2019s blog was on 6 simple environmental tips. I wanted to share simple stuff before starting on a more rigorous routine.) Are you ready for Lent 2020? In addition to my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,39],"tags":[30,52,6],"class_list":["post-6672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-being-kind","category-beyond-stuff","tag-faith","tag-plastics","tag-recycling"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6672"}],"version-history":[{"count":42,"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6672\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6716,"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6672\/revisions\/6716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.susanvogt.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}