Sprinkle Some Seeds Of Joy

With the nice weather winding down quickly, why not make some pick-me-up pots for yourself or for some friends?

Go to your local garden center and pick up some small inexpensive clay pots, some potting soil, and a mixture of spring flower seeds.

Plant yourself an indoor garden and watch the flowers bloom.

As they start to grow, bring one with you when you’re meeting a friend for coffee or lunch, and present it to them for their own enjoyment.

Just cuz…

Help A Friend (Part 3)

I recently saw a posting on our employee bulletin board from someone seeking others in her area to share the ride to work.

I thought this would be an excellent Just Cuz Act idea!

Think of the money you could save if you and three friends carpooled. That’s four days a week you wouldn’t be using your car to and from work. I know that logistically, this can be a little difficult, and at times you will be driving many miles more on your one day than your normally would if you were coming straight to work. But it’s not going to be the same amount as all four days of driving!

If there isn’t anyone at your office, your city may have a hotline to call and leave your name and general area to match up with someone else – a great way to save those gallons as well as make a new friend!

Ask around your place of business, and share the ride, save some gas, have some morning chatter, just cuz!

Bring Some Extra Grub

Gotta love those big dinners.

It’s also nice to have all those leftovers in order to bring your own lunch to work the following day.

Why not show your coworkers how good a cook you are by bringing enough to feed someone else? You never know when you will be the one that is going without a meal.

So offer up some of your grub… just cuz.

Start A Shopping “Club”

This one blurrs the “Do Good Stuff” with “Do Green Stuff.”

I may be one of the few people who actually enjoy grocery shopping. Well, maybe it’s not so surprising, seeing as I need to lose some major weight.

In any case, I have started to share my bi-weekly grocery shopping with a friend of mine. It turns out, this is quite a money saver, not to mention cutting down the amount of gasoline consumed by making two separate shopping trips.

My friend and I both clip coupons, whether it is for a product we use, or not. She will almost always have a couple that I can use, and vice versa.

In addition, we sometimes purchase bulk items and then split them. Not only does this save us a nice chunk of change, but we end up with less wasteful packaging!

So ask a neighbor, or even two, if they want to share the ride during your shopping excursions. It’s a great way to catch up on each other’s lives, save money, and save energy… just cuz.

Play With Strangers

If you work in an office environment, there may be many people who work in your office that you know little or nothing about. I know that where I work, there are four floors housing more than fifteen departments, most of which are alien to me – both the departments and the people.

In our bubbles (be it our office or cubicle), we tend to shelter ourselves from others – I mean, face it… we have our jobs to do! But how about, if during one of our morning or afternoon breaks, or even at lunch, we make it a point – perhaps just once a month – to reach out to someone we don’t know.

Next time, instead of eating your lunch at your desk while you Google your high school sweetheart you haven’t seen in twenty years, make your way to your office’s cafeteria or break room and strike up a conversation with someone you may have seen, but don’t know.

Better yet, pencil into your calendar one day a month that you leave the office for that lunch period, and invite a co-worker to go somewhere for lunch.

You may be making a new best friend, and you’re doing it just cuz.

Bottle Caps, Box Tops, Soup Labels, And Yogurt Lids

You may not realize this, but there are some things you can do with little or no effort to help other people.

Many food and food distributing companies have programs that we, as consumers, can join or participate in. These programs are not only ones that we can benefit from, but ones that others can benefit from as well.

Why not dedicate a shoe box (or two) to collect those bottle caps with codes in them, or box tops and soup labels for school points, or metal yogurt lids to help fight breast cancer.

Check with your local school district or place of worship, and see what they are collecting. At the end of the month, take your bounty to the school or place of worship, or if you’re entering codes from bottle caps, consider donating the points to charities (if this is an option).

Don’t just throw these points away, make the effort to save them to give away, just cuz.

You Can Buy New Pants

In the back of my closet as well as in many of my dresser drawers are pants and shirts and whatnot that doesn’t fit. In the back of my mind I seem to “know” that once I lose the weight I’ll be able to wear them again. In reality, I’ve been saying that for a year. It’s time to purge.

Go in the back of your closet and in your dresser drawers and drag those shirts and pants and skirts and blouses out. Put them in a bag. Take them to the nearest clothing donation shop, or your local place of worship.

You will gain some much needed space in your closets and drawers, and you’ll be helping someone out. You can decide what the better reason is. Oh, and you just may be able to deduct your contribution from your federal taxes.

DISCLAIMER: I’m no tax expert, so it’s best to check with the IRS. Or you can check out this ARTICLE for more information on tax-deduction.

There! Now you have three reasons to pick from as the basis of why you do this.

Reason #4: Just cuz.

Share The Daisies

Tomorrow is Monday.

On your way to work, why not stop by your local florist, grocery store, deli… anywhere they sell bunches of flowers, and pick one up for your desk.

Why not also pick up a bouquet for one of your co-workers who may have recently had a bad day or week. Write on the card, “Just cuz…”

Or skip your own bouquet, and just get the one for your co-worker. Sign the card from “a friend who wishes you a happy week.”

Just… Dance

Today’s entry is a little bit different. I stumbled upon this last week, and it has had a lasting impression.

Here’s the quick story… A guy named “Matt” quits his mundane job after saving up some money, decides to do the “travel the world in a backpack” thing, gets the idea of shooting a video of him dancing his “Matt Dance” in every country he visits, he posts it on YouTube, a company sees it, likes it, and offers to send him out again and they would pay the bill, no strings attached, and Matt goes to almost 50 countries in less than 2 years, and invites people to dance with him. Watch the video below (if you go to YouTube you can see it in high quality).

It’s like World Peace for 4 1/2 minutes. It makes me hopeful.

So DANCE! Just dance.

Just cuz.
_____

For more information, you can go to Matt’s web site.

Share A Newspaper

I used to subscribe to my local newspaper, but I almost never read it, and over the course of a week, my home recycling bin became full with unread news. Now, when I want to read the paper, I’m fortunate enough in my real job to have access to a library where I can read.

I started thinking about other places I worked and the lack of this great library resource. I decided that if I were in that predicament and I subscribed to a newspaper, after I was finished reading it, I would refold it to its almost original condition, and leave it in a break room, or in the lobby for someone else to enjoy. It’s simple. It’s a no-brainer. But how often do you read your paper, and then throw it out recycle it?

Your newspaper doesn’t need to be recycled right away, so why not share it just cuz?

(the same goes for magazines!)