When I used to work in the city, I would pass multiple homeless folks on my walk from the train station to my office. In the warm weather, I felt compassion for people that had no where to go or live.

But in the cold weather, I found it hard to stop thinking about all those bodies I passed, sleeping on box covers, under anything that could be used as a blanket. The air was ice cold and the ground was frozen. People slept in doorways, under awnings, and anywhere they could to gain shelter from the biting winds.

Sometimes I would remember to put a $20 bill in my coat pocket or in the hand of my warm glove. That way I could easily take it out and place it in the nearly frozen hand of a street sleeper. My prayer was that when they awoke they could at least get a warm breakfast (or a bottle of something strong if that’s what they wanted.) This ritual brought me a tiny bit of comfort that I’d helped in some small way.

I also imagined that the $20 would extend it’s positive vibes out into many directions. As that little bit of money was dispersed into different hands and traveled to new environments, my hope was that it would continue to bless those it came into contact with.

Of course, these are all stories I made up while doing this, and I have no idea what happened to that $20 once I walked away from the sleeping stranger.

Today, I was thinking that kindness is the same as $20. If we extend a kindness to one stranger (a smile, holding the door, listening to someone or thing that we don’t necessarily find relevant), that kind act can exponentially reach others. As the currency is received, and shared with others, I imagine my kind act has reached countless strangers.

Of course, as with the $20, I have no idea if that actually happens. But it doesn’t cost anything to be kind. And wouldn’t it be cool if all we had to do was have every person in the world perform one kind, selfless act every day, to aggregate the expanding kind energy across humanity? It’s not as hard as you might think, and moreover, when we are generous with others we simultaneously bless ourselves.