My father bought my mother  “vanity” license plates the first day they were made available in California in 1972.  The plates say “2 SMILE.”

When my mother gave up driving, Dad gave them as a gift to my wife.  He said, “You’re the person who most deserves them.”

I always thought Dad got those plates and then gave them to Carol because both mom and my wife have wonderful smiles.  Theirs are smiles that make you smile back.

But the background story is actually a bit different.  It turns out that my mom had a “secret” daily mission.  Every day she would make sure she paid a compliment to a total stranger.  “That is such a lovely dress,”  “You just opened that door for that older person.  How thoughtful of you.”  And yes, “You have such a lovely smile.”

She did this for over sixty years:  60×365=21,900 random compliments,  21,900 moments of kindness,  21,900 extra smiles.

Something not only to think about, but something we can all do.

Now this blog goes out to over 5,000 addresses.  If we all followed my mom’s program, that would mean 1,825,000 more acts of kindness per year.

But this blog isn’t only about my mom.  It’s about my kindness for the day (which I assume you will think is somewhat strange, now that you have read this far).

I want to compliment and thank the United States Postal Service, and in doing so, give you a helpful tool for your business.

USPS will now send you, in advance, images of all first class mail being delivered each day.  You can sign up for this service by going to https://informeddelivery.usps.com/box/pages/intro/start.action .  I found out about this because a charity I work with thought they were not getting all of their mail (big problem if donation checks go missing!).

Since all mail is now barcoded and scanned, USPS has an image of each piece of mail coming to you on any given day. So now, each morning I get an email showing me what I can expect the postman to deliver later that day.  It sounds crazy that it helps to get this information a few hours before the mail arrives, but both Carol and I have found it very helpful.  Knowing that the check is really in the mail, or that an imporant letter from the insurance company is really going to get here, or that an unexpected (but let’s say welcome) piece of correspondence is about to arrive is a good thing.

And it’s free from our federal government.

Just thought you would like to know.  Hope it was helpful and puts a smile on your face.