It takes one song to change a mood, one turn to change a journey. One smile can turn an entire day around. After losing Aly, facing her sweet 16 birthday without her was overwhelming on many levels. I knew I couldn't ease the heartache, but I could spend her birthday making a difference in the lives of others. Doing so, in turn, would lift my heart. But one pay-it-forward random act of kindness wasn't going to suffice.
Instead, an army of Aly's friends planned something that would touch the lives of 50 strangers in a single afternoon. Small organza bags in Aly's favorite shade of blue were lovingly filled with a handful of chocolate Hershey Kisses and one inspirational quote printed from the computer. On February 11, 2010, Aly's 16th birthday, her friends set out to distribute those little blue bags to total strangers as a random act of kindness in memory of my daughter.
By the end of the afternoon as the girls one by one returned empty handed, the smiles on their faces warmed my soul and the stories they shared lifted my heart. One bag was handed to a husband and wife in a restaurant. When the teenager explained that the bag was in memory of her beloved friend Aly, the husband and wife began weeping in gratitude, for they too had just lost a daughter. Another bag traveled hundreds of miles across state lines, and the recipient was so touched that she became determined to track me down to share just how much that pretty blue bag meant to her.
On a single day, February 11, 2010, fifty small blue bags filled with chocolate Kisses and one inspirational quote made their way to random strangers, touching the lives of both the givers and receivers.
My message is this: Be it large or small, we all hold the power to impact someone's life in a single moment with one word, one smile, one gesture. And today I invite you to join me in embracing your own power to change someone's mood, turn their entire day around, and possibly even their life. Join me in being the Power of One.
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