The Invitation

I want to live in a kinder world. I want my children and grandchildren and all children, current and future, to live in a kinder world—a world in which love dissolves fear. 

I believe that every kind act has a ripple effect: it replicates itself in the greater world.

My book, Smiling at Strangers, is a handbook for building a community of kindred souls who share my mission.

Its target audience is kindhearted but shy introverts. Our kind but retiring nature makes us an unrecognized force in the world. I believe that together we can change that world, one kind act at a time. 

I believe that every time this simple, nonjudgmental recognition and acknowledgment between two strangers occurs it fortifies the immune system of the world body and strengthens its ability to heal the wound of separation and fear.

I believe that kindness at its basic level is a one-on-one affair. When you greet and acknowledge someone in line at the grocery store or sitting next to you in the waiting room at the medical clinic, you know nothing about their fears, hopes, or beliefs.

You’re just two strangers whose paths happen to intersect at a brief moment in time. All you know about each other is that you’re members of the human species in mortal bodies. Any connection, even if it’s only eye contact and a smile, is acknowledgment of the other. It can happen even without a shared language. It implies “I wish you well.”

I choose to spend whatever time I have left on the planet advancing the goal of leaving it in a kinder state than when I entered it. 

I hope you’ll join me. We have work to do.