Kindness And Community: Beating The Snow

This week snow hit the UK and it was amazing to see how those little flakes of ice, caused so much trouble. Within hours the schools were shut and parents couldn’t go to work as there was no one to look after their kids. The roads become like ice rinks and travel became difficult. The news channels did their usual sensational newsflashes with the snow being the headline as the UK just ground to a halt.

All while this madness was going on, something incredible was beginning to happen. I woke on the first day of snow at about 6am, after my partner, Jackie thought that it was that important that she should wake me up to tell me, “its snowing!”. After about half an hour of watching the ‘devastating’ news on the television, I got up and looked out the window. It was 6:30am and there was people, young and old, building snowmen and having snowball fights in my street. People were laughing and joking and having fun – there was a true sense of community in the air.

This was great as in British culture the sense of community seems to be slipping away by the day. So, what caused the snow to bring the community together? Maybe it was the generalised feeling of helplessness, because now one could get anywhere, or maybe it was just the child coming out in everyone? Who knows? But for two days it was great to see!

Two of my last articles have been on the topic of kindness. Now I want to get you thinking about kindness and community. What things can we do in a kind way, that like the snow we could bring the community together? I have listed a few below to get you going.

1. Organise a street party for the spring. This is great as you could make sure that everyone is involved and that a good time is had by all.

2. Get a group of local residents together that like gardening and give your street a spring clean. You will soon find that others want to join in and help.

3. If you are a mother of a young child, then why not organise a coffee morning where your toddlers can meet other kids and you can meet other mothers in your area.

So there are three great ideas to get you started. Having a sense of community around you can make all the difference. Putting a little ‘time investment’ in the people around you will make you feel great.