Why a blog? #4 – Kindness

Beth and I have always tried to reach out and help others.  Almost 40 years ago we sponsored a native African missionary who pretty much lived on the $25 a month we sent him.  Since then we have tried to stay engaged in some effort to help others.  At this point in our lives looking at having more time to call our own we hope to keep up and even expand this.  I am not yet sure how this will look while exploring but we are doing some research.  We have located a few internet resources that help connect RVers with volunteer opportunities but I have always like to make our effort more personal and direct.  Like I said, I’m not yet sure how this will look, but do want to make an effort to make it an integral part of our daily life.  I am listening to a speaker now on uTube who is talking about compassion.  He says most people will take opportunities to show compassion and kindness when they occur spontaneously in our lives, but he challenges people to live lives where they purposefully plan to reach out with compassion as a planned activity.  I like this idea very much, but am not sure how to do it yet.  As we try to make compassion and kindness a part of our lives I hope to talk a little about it on the blog to both seek input and ideas from others, and maybe in some small way encourage others to think about and do things themselves.

Another way I hope to do this, and this will probably sound really crazy, is to look at the Amazon Affiliates Program.  What?  How?  As I started doing research on blogging I could hardly find any books or material that were not about “How to make money blogging.”  I looked and looked and most all had a little on making a blog and then a lot about developing “revenue streams.”  As you will note, developing revenue streams is not on my list at all, so I didn’t pay much attention to this.  However in continuing to research for how to blog and watching vlogs on uTube I learned a little more.  Anyway, so, later on as we get the blog going I am looking at signing up for the Amazon Affiliates Program.  This means if anyone reading the blog then goes to Amazon from a link on the blog and buys anything a very small part of the purchase price will become Amazon credit for us.  It does not cost any more for the person purchasing things so it looks like a win-win kind of situation.  Beth and I have talked about then taking any credit we might accrue and using it to help others.  We use Amazon a lot (not a plug, a fact) and think there are others who do also, and might want to add a little benefit by helping others at the same time.  We imagine as we travel looking for people, places that could use a little gift and using our credit on Amazon to spread a little kindness.  Is that crazy?  I’m not sure if it will work out, but if it could work we hope to give it a try.  We also plan to continue to set aside some of our own money each month in the budget to help others.

Anyway, while maybe not yet really well developed, I hope to use the blog as a vehicle to practice and spread a little kindness and compassion.  As we go (or now)  I will be asking for ideas any of you might have.

As you may have guessed the pictures this time don’t have anything to do directly with kindness.  They were taken on our last trip to Moss Landing, CA.  Although really, what I was thinking was about the kindness God has bestowed on us in nature.

Just over TWO WEEKS until Beth retires!