This Holiday Season, Let's Go the Extra Mile

This holiday season, let's all go the extra mile to take care of others. Let's take the small amount of extra time it takes to be more considerate of and compassionate toward others instead of brushing by them without a second thought.

At the Grocery Store

After buying your groceries, return the shopping cart to the drop off area or back into the store. It really doesn't take that long, the tiny amount of exercise will be good for you, and it benefits everyone. How annoying is it to find the perfect parking space only to realize some inconsiderate jackass has left his or her cart in the space, leaving it unavailable for parking? If you don't like it, you shouldn't do it.

Additionally, it is considerate for the employees who have to gather all of those carts and push them back inside for the customers. They shouldn't have to run all over the entire parking lot just to do their job (which I'm imagining is a rather thankless job even though it serves a very useful purpose).

In Line

Whether you're in line at the grocery store, the shopping mall, the gas station, or at the dinner buffet, relax, be patient, and realize your life is not going to end if you don't get through the line five minutes faster.

With Your Old Clothes

I am guilty of doing this before: I will have every intention of taking my old clothes to Goodwill, then the bags or boxes will sit for months, and when we get ready to move to a new place, I get lazy and throw out the clothes. This holiday season, I will take any clothes I no longer want to Goodwill since they are certainly good enough clothes to be worn. In these hard economic times, a simple gift of clothing can mean a lot to people.

With Your Loose Change

The Salvation Army is always at grocery stores, K-Marts, and many other places. Most of us, even in hard times, don't give a second thought to our spare change. But some people do. Tossing your loose change, a dollar, or even five dollars into the Salvation Army's donation container can benefit a more than worthy cause.

Donate Blood

If you can, donate blood or plasma. It doesn't take long and you usually get cookies and juice (maybe even a sticker) afterward. Blood and plasma are desperately needed. Think about how you would feel if you needed a blood transfusion and there wasn't enough blood that matched your type. If you have "O" blood like I do, you are a universal donor, and your blood is always in demand (of course, positive has to match positive and negative to negative).

Freerice.com

If you could play a game that actually benefitted people, why wouldn't you? That's what you can do at freerice.com. You can answer trivia questions in a variety of subjects, such as English vocabulary (my favorite), chemistry, art, math, geography, and languages. For each trivia question you get right, FreeRice donates 20 grains of rice to the UN World Food Program. You can play for as long as you want. Heck, the longer, the better. It's doing a good service, it's fun, and it actually helps you learn something.

Cell Phones for Soldiers

We owe so much to the selflessness of the people who serve in our Armed forces. AT&T has made it easy to provide a great service for our troops, the ability to call home and talk to their families and friends. You can donate your actual cell phone or make a donation. If you donate a cell phone, it will be recycled and will contribute phone cards to be sent to our troops. You can also visit this website to purchase phone cards: https://thor.aafes.com/scs/product.aspx.

Adopt a Pet

If you've been wanting to add a new family member and love pets, now is a great time to bring a new best friend home. If you have the money and time to devote to a pet, check out one of many sites for adopting. We found our Lilly (a hound mix) on petfinder.com. Another popular site is the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals International (SPCA).

Of course, there are many other things you can do this holiday season to go the extra mile. These are just some of the ideas that are important to me.