PARKing in a MRT Station

On my way home back home today, I entered a lift inside a MRT station. I was one of the first few to enter so I moved to press the lift button to the designated level. As the lift was reaching the platform level, I noticed that my train was coming. It could have been easy to exit the lift because I was standing near the door. However, I thought that it would be a kind gesture for me to press the "door open" button and allow all passengers to exit first, despite knowing I might miss my train. Most of the passengers who came out did not bother show any appreciation but I wasn't expecting any either. However, there was a lady, almost the last to leave the lift, who was very appreciative of my action. She was sincerely thanking me and even tried to use her hands to stop the door from closing when I was exiting the lift, as I was carrying my office bag and another plastic bag full of stuff. I felt good to be appreciated despite expecting nothing in return.

I feel that there are many opportunities present in our daily lives that allow us to engage in acts of kindness, even in the MRT station. We can be kind by queuing for our turn to board the train. We can be kind by moving in to the center of the train to allow more passengers to board. We can be kind by moving out first and not blocking the doorway if we are standing near the door, though it is not our stop to alight. We can be kind by giving up our seats (not necessary the reserved seats) to someone who needs it more than us. When there is an empty seat, we can be kind to see if there is anyone (someone older/ more frail/ pregnant/ young kids) who may need the seat more than us before taking the seat. When there are so many opportunities present, it is not difficult to engage in acts of random kindness on a regular basis.

P.A.R.K. Star Award Winners

Wouldn't it be nice to be doing something that you are really passionate about and at the same time spreading kindness to the community? Blogging is the answer if you are wondering how you can achieve both feats at the same time. Through blogging, useful knowledge can be shared among like-minded friends in the community, which can in turn inspire more people to share, especially when they have benefited previously from those who shared.

In this post, I would like to introduce to you two great blogs which have been around for quite awhile (since 2009 or earlier) and have a huge fan base. They are "A Singaporean Stockmarket Investor (ASSI)" and "My Wok Life".

ASSI is an investment blog in which the author, AK, is a humble and generous person who is ever willing to share his knowledge on investing and  his analysis of the stock market. There are many fans who made profits by learning from him. AK's kind nature can also be seen from the way he constantly encourages his readers to contribute back to the society by donating part of what they earn through investing to charitable organizations. He is also seen to be supporting a few charities regularly like "Singapore Children's Society" and meaningful initiatives like "BetterWorldBooks". AK epitomizes someone who is willing to share the good things in life with others and this is certainly a true act of kindness. By doing one act of kindness per blog entry, AK is making much difference to the community and spreading kindness to many beneficiaries.

Patrica, the author of "My Wok Life", is very passionate about cooking and has enriched many readers through her generous sharing of the recipes of many unique and delicious home cooked dishes. Patrica has spent much effort in making her recipes reader-friendly as well as including useful tips like where to get the ingredients, calories content of the dishes and their health benefits. Such acts of kindness can benefit greatly her readers. Despite her busy schedule of juggling work and family commitment, Patrica still finds time to cook daily for her family and blog on a consistent basis. This shows that when you are passionate about something, you will find time to do it, no matter how busy you may be. If we can all be passionate about our hobbies and sharing our knowledge with others, one step at a time, we are constantly spreading small act of random kindness around. When we embrace this thinking for life, we can really make a world of difference to people around us.

For their great initiative and selfless sharing, I am proud to present the P.AR.K. Star Award to both AK and Patricia. Please continue to keep the up good work and spread the kindness around.

What is your P.A.R.K. Moment?

One week into P.A.R.K., I would like to share some of my P.A.R.K. moments and hopefully it can inspire you to define your P.A.R.K moments and keep the ball rolling.

1. Yahoo Answers
Yahoo! Answers is a community-driven question-and-answer (Q&A) site launched by Yahoo! that allows users to both submit questions to be answered and answer questions asked by other users all over the world. I thought it is one of the most easiest way to reach out to those in need and to spread kindness around. Having lived through over three decades, I am sure some of my life experiences would help others in one way or another. I have answered questions with regards to tourism, education and volunteerism and will continue to contribute more in time to come. I feel good when my answer is voted as the "Best Answer". You really don't need a lot of time to participate in this act of kindness, a mere 5 mins of your time may make a lot of difference to the person in need of some kind advice or attention.

2. Giving up your seat to someone more needy
This PARK moment is even easier to achieve. It takes a mere few seconds to complete, doesn't require any brain power and opportunities are abundant in our everyday lives. In this week, I am proud to say that I gave up my seat on two separate occasions to two elderly aunties; one in a bus and the other at a bus-stop. I feel great to see the grateful look on their faces. Recently, there has been a debate on whether commuters should give up their seats to the more needy on public transport, especially if they had already paid for the fare and should enjoy the entitlement. However, if we have the heart to give, it really doesn't matter how much you paid for your fare or what you are entitled to, it is more of how you care for a fellow human being and being kind enough to give up your entitlement to make someone happy. Real generosity is doing something for others without wanting anything in return.

3. Making Donations
We often see students or volunteers participating in "Flag Day" events on the street, especially during the weekends. I personally have been through a few "Flag Day" events myself and it is not exactly an easy task for the volunteers. You need to sacrifice your personal time during the weekends to stand long hours in the open and take the initiative to ask from the public to donate for a good cause. Of all the people you approach, there is a high chance that more than half will shun you. However, one must keep the faith that the donations collected, no matter how small the amount, through collective efforts with the rest of the volunteers, can make a big difference to the beneficiaries. Therefore, if we cannot spare the time to participate in a such a volunteer activity, the very least we can do is to make a small donation to these volunteers and their beneficiaries. I donated 50 cents today, it is a very small amount and may only buy you a packet of tissue in Singapore. However, if there are 1 million Singaporeans like myself donating today, then the beneficiaries will be enriched with half a million dollars of donations. That is the spirit of P.A.R.K, through small and simple random acts of kindness one at a time, we can all make a BIG difference to the world.

There are many more examples of P.A.R.K. moments that I can think of and carry out. I will be sharing more with you in time to come. Hopefully, we can build a community where we are constantly sharing with each other our P.A.R.K moments, for life !

P.A.R.K. Facebook Page

If you are willing to board the A.R.K. with us and embrace P.A.R.K.'s life long philosophy, please "like" our Facebook Page and you will be updated with the latest blog entries, inspiring stories, quotes and pictures :)

The weblink to our Facebook Page is as follow:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Project-Act-of-Random-Kindness-PARK/442100069242216

Also, I strongly encourage all P.A.R.K. members to share your P.A.R.K. moment on our Facebook page, to inspire more friends to join us in this amazing voyage.

[Chinese Idiom] 日行一善 (Do A Good Deed Everyday)

There is a Chinese idiom called 日行一善, it means do a good deed everyday. I thought that this idiom is very much aligned with P.A.R.K.'s mission, that is to engage in acts of random kindness, on a consistent of daily basis.

据清朝编辑《德育古鉴》一书中记载，“日行一善”这个成语出自于哲宗元祐三年任兵器监主簿的葛繁，葛繁坚持每天做好事，后来官至太守。有人请教他如何“日行一善”，他说：“比如这里有条板凳，倒了碍人走路，就弯腰把它扶正放好，即是一善。”

The above paragraph talks about the origin of this Chinese Idiom. According to the "Ancient Book of Good Deeds", the idiom came from a weapon supervisor named Fan Ge. He insisted on doing a good deed everyday and when someone came along to ask how to do that, Fan Ge replied: "For example, if there is a bench blocking the passage way of others, you just have to bend down and put the bench in it's rightful position, that is considered doing a good deed". Indeed, doing a simple act of kindness like removing a bench that is obstructing the passage way is not difficult and considered a good of act. When we have this mindset of wanting to do a good deed or act of kindness each day, we will become proactive in achieving our goals.

Building the A.R.K.

When I started brainstorming, a few ideas came to mind, one of them is to provide online tuition to underprivileged kids. As I have been teaching tuition for a number of years, this is one area which I feel confident in contributing, through coaching of fundamental, mentoring of progress and sharing of study methods. There are a few hurdles to realize this concept and the questions I asked include: How do I reach out to these needy students? Online/ face to face? How can I afford the time amid my busy schedule? How many students can I coach? Where to look for more volunteers when the need arises? How do I sustain this project in the long run? How do I inspire others to do likewise? I thought of setting up an online forum to let these underprivileged students interact with volunteers online, that should save the hassle to having to travel to student's/ tutor's home. It is likely to be safer as the activities could be monitored by moderators. However, to kick-start the project, it involved a lot of planning and coordination work, like finding the beneficiaries, educating about the program, getting volunteers to join in, creating topics in the forum and so on. However, the most important question that I asked myself is that is this going to be effective? I couldn't convince myself that this concept would work so I KIV the idea.

On one particular night before turning in, a random thought hit my mind as I suddenly recalled this movie that I watched previously. The movie is called "Evan Almighty", in which God instructs politician Evan (who previously prays to God to help him change the world) to build an ARK because a flood is coming.

In the above scene, Evan asked God why was he chosen? God replied that it was because Evan wanted to change the world. God told Evan that many people want to change the world but don't know how to begin. God then enlightened Evan by telling him that in order to change world, he will just have to do one act of random kindness at a time.

That is a simple yet powerful statement which had enlightened me deeply. Indeed, we do not need mega projects or huge amount of funds to do start something to change the world. All we need is to start off with doing simple acts of random kindness, one at a time, and soon the world will be a better place when everyone started giving and spreading kindness around. I can be doing what I like and yet helping someone along the way (sharing the knowledge, providing advice) and this can also be an act of kindness. I do not have to define what activity constitute a kind act because the person embracing this philosophy will choose to do the activity he/ she is most comfortable with and at the same time spread kindness around. If more people can embrace this mission, then the world will definitely be a better place for all to live in.

Towards the end of the movie, God explained to Evan that the word "ARK" stand for "Acts of Random Kindness". Thus, that is how I got my inspiration for the name of this project. I added a "P" in front to make it P.A.R.K., which also means Project Act of Random Kindness. I hope more people can come on board the ARK and be a PARK member. It is through these small acts of random kindness, one at a time, that we can all change the world and make it a better place for our future generations.

In the movie, the ARK was supposed to be ready on 22 September because the flood would come on that day. Coincidentally, Project ARK was started on 22 September 2013, an inspiring Sunday.

The Inspiration Behind the Project

I was quite involved in volunteering activities in my younger days (junior college, undergraduate) and nothing beats the sense of satisfaction you get from volunteering your time to help another person. Since then, I realized the secret of finding happiness is to bring happiness to another person. For example, when you do something that pleases a loved one, doesn't you feel happy when you see the joys on his/her face?

As I graduated from school and entered the working force, the number of volunteer activities significantly reduced as I spend more time at work and setting up my own family. It has been a good 7 years since I was actively involved in volunteer activities and I have always missed those meaningful days, where I had lots of fun doing volunteer work with like-minded friends.

There comes a time in life where I ask myself these questions, "What am I living for?", "What is the greater purpose in life other than work, earning lots of money, then spending the money to enjoy life?" "What is the reason for my existence and what kind of memories do I want to take with me when I finally complete my time here?" Do I want to have memories of the material achievements that I had, like how much cash in the bank, how many houses, cars? Or, do I want to have memories of how I have made a difference to this world, memories of how I have made efforts to reach out to help others, memories of great satisfaction I had when spreading kindness around and inspiring others to do so.

If I go for the former, I probably be just an average achiever because no matter how rich I can get today, there will always be someone who is richer. Also, all these "assets" cannot be brought along when one passes on. If I choose the latter, I would have achieved much more in this life because no acts of kindness, no matter how small, is wasted. Also, there is no scale to measure kindness, you don't have to do 1000 acts of kindness to be qualify as a kind person. Basically, when you give from the heart, you are a kind person. There is always a richer person but there is no kinder person. If we can embrace this philosophy to give kindness, we will always be rich at heart, no matter how little cash there is in the bank. If we turn this philosophy into a life long mission, we will be filled with memories like no others, memories that money can't buy or match, memories we take with us even when we pass on, memories that we can give to others by touching their lives. The time has come for me to do something that I would be proud of when I look back on my life many years later. I truly believe that, other than fulfilling my primary role in this life as someone's son, husband, father, it is my calling to help others, to spread the kindness and to make the world a better place. If I can get just someone to board to ARK and be part of P.A.R.K., I would be very happy indeed.

Introducing P.A.R.K.

P.A.R.K. stands for Project Act of Random Kindness. The purpose of this project is to encourage people to participate in random acts of kindness as and when they can. These simple acts can range from providing assistance, advice or information online (blogs, social media, forums, yahoo answers) to reaching out to helping the less fortunate through volunteering activities. These kind acts need not require a lot of time or effort; it can be at the comfort of your bedroom, on the go (using our smart devices) or anywhere, like reaching out to help a stranger on the street.

Whatever it is, as long as you are doing a small act of kindness every now and then, you are spreading love and making this world a better place to live in. If a person can do 1 act of kindness each day, he/ she will be doing 365 acts of kindness each year, 3650 acts of kindness in 10 years and so on. If we have 1000 like-minded folks doing likewise, we would have 3.65 millions of kind acts to spread around. If you share the same inspiration as I do, please join me as a P.A.R.K. member and spread the kindness around. It would be great to have you share your experience to inspire and encourage more people to do likewise.