Easter

The past 40 days have flown by. 10 days ago, I started thinking that this whole list was a bit ambitious and didn't know how I was going to finish. But, I'm proud to say that I was able to get it all done! For me, I got a lot more out of doing this than giving something up like every other year.

I'm a big fan of Pope Francis in these first couple weeks of his papacy. He's demonstrated his humility, concern for the poor, and the importance of helping others. In his Good Friday homily, he said, "Christians must respond to evil with good, taking the cross upon themselves as Jesus did." I'm usually not a fan of telling people all the good deeds you've done, but I think it's important to see that there are a ton of different ways you can help others. These are 40 easy ways that you can do good and brighten someone's day because you really don't know what other people are going through. Some of these do require planning, but some of them are pretty easy to do. Most of the stuff I got from Target so if you're anything like me when I go there and find yourself buying random things, try to pick up something from this list and pass it on! If you're short on money, you can always donate your time to helping others as well. With the exception of the animal shelter and soup kitchen, these were done in places I was going to be at anyways. I do have to warn you though, the animal shelter one was dangerous because Cammy and I almost came home with five puppies! I think my favorite ones to do were leaving change at the fountain and buying carousel rides for a bunch of kids with Andrew--it was a lot of fun and super easy and was so cute to see him get so excited to help others.

Huge shout out to everyone who participated in the 40 acts and especially to those who helped me finish each one. As hectic as it was trying to cross these all off, it's been really fun and rewarding to see people's reactions and to hear stories about people paying it forward. Thanks for joining me on this journey--Happy Easter everyone!

xoxo,
Linh