Dec 31 - A Year of Kindness

My last and final kindness for 2025 is a big THANK YOU to everyone who supported me this past year. I made a New Year’s Resolution to practice kindness every day throughout 2025 and I did it thanks to so many people.

My hope was that if I could offer a kindness every day - light one tiny candle - maybe it would spark another tiny candle and kindness could make its way back into our community and conversations.

So, I gave blood, helped a Parkinson's group paint rocks, donated egg cartons, and paid for the car behind me at the drive-thru. I gave out flowers, left quarters at a car wash, bought a stranger breakfast, and gave out treats to airline pilots and crew. I was nicer to myself, took guilt-free naps, learned the “power of the pause." I cleaned up trash on a highway, visited a senior center and brought soup to fishermen - and more.

The results: Thinking about ways to be kind every day made me feel better. It gave me a purpose bigger than myself. It opened doors I never would have stepped through and introduced me to people I never would have met. It showed me that kindness and its ripple effects are real. It strengthened my resilience, and improved my physical and mental health. And when I broke my ankle and couldn’t offer kindness myself, friends and new friends stepped in and carried the practice forward - and those kindnesses continued throughout the year. It made me a happier person.

There were a few times along the way when I was in pain or the world was in pain and I felt like my little candle was flickering. When so many bad things happen, what does my tiny little kindness matter?

I’ve learned that it matters. People do terrible things. Apparently, that is the human condition. But there is always a larger and quieter number of people who will do the kind thing. They will pick up the trash, soothe the crying baby, protect the persecuted, rescue the animal, pay the bill, feed the hungry, hug the weary, listen to the suffering. Kindness is unstoppable. The flame may dim but it never goes out.

One person I met in my kindness journey was Sarah Dully, who has a kindness club at Narragansett High School. I’m going to establish a scholarship for the club in honor of my grandmother, Francesca Hinckley Pell, who exemplified kindness. I want to recognize and celebrate the kind kids - not just the scholars and athletes.

And lastly, and on a much larger scale, I’m helping to produce a Kindness Summit at Florida Gulf Coast University with another amazing person I met on my kindness journey - Alan Williams. It's from May 14-17, 2026 where global kindness leaders will gather to create kindness initiatives, public speaking events and kindness programs. Details will be posted soon. Save the Date!

Thank you to my Kindness Ambassadors and all the people who supported me on this journey. Thank you for shining your bright lights.