The PERK Project

Have you heard of The PERK Project? It is a wonderful project that my sweet friends Jemma from At Home with Jemma and Stacey from Poofing the Pillows started over the holidays.

PERK stands for Positive*Encouraging*Real and Kindness. Something that we could all use a lot more of!

I was over the moon when they asked me to participate, along with a few other blogger friends, in this weeks PERK project. Would we share our ideas on how to spread positiveness and kindness?

I’ll certainly try.

Positive

My Dad was never one to give out a lot of advice, however the one thing that I can remember him telling my sisters and me was this: “Tammy, only you can decide if you are going to have a good day.”

That positive statement wasn’t always what a child or a teen wanted to hear that’s for sure!

But he was right. This one piece of advice has served me well my entire life.

As a child, if I got mad at my sisters for a small big slight, I knew that I could let it ruin my day or I could let it slide and be happy. The latter drove one of my sisters crazy, so having a good day to spite her became high on my list! Sorry sis!

A car cuts me off on the highway? I refuse to let that ten seconds ruin my  – or anyone else’s- day. Well, at least I try not to. No one is perfect!

Six years ago this month, I was diagnosed with Triple Negative Breast Cancer, BRCA 2. When my sweet doctor was giving my husband and I the news, there was one thing that she said that really stood out for me. She told me that now was the time to “be positive!”

Not always the easiest thing to accomplish for sure. Chemo and multiple surgeries can sure do a number on you. The least of which was that my hair grew back in a lot thinner. Some spots are two hairs  falling out  from being one big bald spot. But I am so thankful to be alive and to just have hair!

Kindness

A few weeks ago I was at the grocery store. They were slammed so I was bagging my own groceries when I felt a poke in my posterior. I turned to see an elderly gentleman in a wheel chair who said: “M’am, you have the most beautiful hair!” I was so flabbergasted that I could hardly say thank you!

Now, here’s the thing. He probably had poor eye sight and couldn’t see the top of my head, but those few seconds of kindness toward me made my day! Especially, since I thought that my hair looked like, as my Granny used to say, a rat’s nest. With holes in it!

It got me thinking. What if we all did one act of kindness each day? Open a door, smile, give a compliment, volunteer, or pay for the person’s food behind us in the drive thru line. Big or small. Your choice. Can you imagine? Kindness is infectious!

So maybe my Dad wasn’t entirely right when he said that only I could decide if I was going to have a good day or not. Yes, we can choose, but maybe with a tiny, or big, act of kindness we can choose to make someone else’s day a good one too!

Until next time….

Tammy