Here’s a grand challenge. Sometime this week, do something good for someone completely anonymously. I’d ask you to tell me about the experience, but that would ruin the challenge.

You may have to be creative to keep your good deed anonymous, but you can handle that. As sad as it is to admit, I have a tough time with this challenge. It’s like an itch that I have to scratch. Many times, I have done something that stayed anonymous for a while, until I found some excuse to tell someone of my wonderful deed. Each time I succumbed to the temptation and told others of my virtue, it was like taking the wind out of my sails, exposing that most of what I do, I do for the recognition. A painful but valuable lesson.

Anonymous deeds of kindness multiply their benefits. I have been the beneficiary of so many anonymous thoughtful gestures, particularly when our family was going through its incredibly hard journey of Perrin’s cancer. Each time, we experienced the deed as a gift from heaven that let us know we were deeply loved, even when we were unable to return the love. There was a purity to the gift that felt holy. On the giver’s end, anonymous deeds grow all of the best seeds in us. Acting without anyone ever knowing the source of the generosity is implicitly unselfish since the only reward is internal. Surprisingly, we find that internal satisfaction is greater than external praise. 

One of the joys of doing anonymous deeds is the opportunity to be creative.  Creative anonymity brings all of our being into the deed. The picture included with this post is of an anonymous kind deed that was set up in our front yard on my daughter’s birthday just one month after she passed away. One light for each year of her life. I can’t tell you what that kind deed meant to us! Engaging our imagination and vision in caring for others brings a deep sense of joy into the act and is received as even more special for its creativity. Picture what would happen if this then became a regular practice in our weeks. By itself, the habit of anonymous deeds would infuse our weeks with newfound joy.

Now, here’s the kicker. Can you imagine the impact if everyone who reads this post does one simple anonymous act of kindness for someone in need this week?  And what if this post was passed along so that hundreds of deeds became thousands. Our society is desperately in need of kindness, particularly kindness void of ulterior motive.I want to encourage you, although I will never know whether you did this or not, to take up the challenge to act anonymously. You may find, as I have, that it is much harder than you think, but that is okay. Do it anyway. The rewards are heavenly!