Title: HumanKind
Author: Brad Aronson
Published: April 2020, LifeTree Media
Format: Paperback, 256 pages
Source: Author via @SuzyApprovedBookTours
Summary:
HumanKind is the heartwarming, feel-good book that we all need right now.
Brad
Aronson’s life changed in an instant when his wife, Mia, was diagnosed
with leukemia. Following her diagnosis, Brad spent most of the next
two-and-a-half years either by her side as she received treatment or
trying to shield their five-year-old son, Jack, from the worst of Mia’s
illness. Amid the stress and despair of waiting for the treatment to
work, Brad and Mia were met by an outpouring of kindness from friends,
family, and even complete strangers.
Inspired by the many
demonstrations of “humankindness” that supported their family through
Mia’s recovery, Brad began writing about the people who rescued his
family from that dark time, often with the smallest of gestures. But he
didn’t stop there. Knowing that simple acts of kindness transform lives
across the globe every day, he sought out these stories and shares some
of the best ones here.
In HumanKind you’ll meet the mentor who
changed a child’s life with a single lesson in shoe tying, the
six-year-old who launched a global kindness movement, the band of
seamstress grandmothers who mend clothes for homeless people, and more.
Brad
also provides dozens of ways you can make a difference through the
simplest words and deeds. You’ll discover how buying someone a meal or
sharing a little encouragement at the right time can transform someone’s
world, as well as your own.
The resource section at the back of
the book provides guidance and organizations that will help you channel
and amplify your own acts of kindness. Here you’ll discover:
• How you can fund a surgery to cure someone’s blindness with a donation of less than $200.
• Organizations through which you can provide a birthday gift for a child who otherwise wouldn’t receive one.
•
Multiple places where you can send letters of encouragement to support
hospitalized kids, lonely seniors, refugees, veterans and others.
• And over fifty more ways you can change a life.
HumanKind will touch your heart. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, and you’ll be reminded of what really matters.
My thoughts: I truly believe there are books that find their ways to us at just the right time and this one surely did for me. With all the uncertainty that is going on in the world right now, and the stress that that has caused for many, this book couldn’t have come at a better time. We all need a little kindness and I know just how far a little kindness goes and this book proves that over and over again.
This book was written after the unthinkable happened in Brad’s life. His wife had been given a diagnosis they were not expecting and it turned their life upside down. But that’s when they were shown kindness in so many different forms from not only friends and family but from strangers. And you know what – it doesn’t take much to offer a little kindness.
From his own experience, Brad went on to explore other examples of kindness that people show everyday and he gives us so many phenomenal stories. I have to say, this book is filled with many wonderful gems, ones that will certainly tug at your heartstrings and will have the potential to cause a few tears to be shed – tears of joy because you will see the good in humanity. Sometimes it’s a matter of looking at things differently, sometimes it’s a change in perspective, or even just thanking someone – all these things have the potential to lead to greater things.
I also loved that Brad includes ways you can get involved if you are not already doing your own thing. And he repeatedly stresses that no act of kindness is too small. Whether you do something once a day, once a week, once a month, once a year…just doing something is enough.
I cannot recommend picking this book up. It really is a gem. I know that it has reinforced what I already know…you never know what that one small act of kindness will lead to, you never know what kind of impact you will leave on someone, so if nothing else, always give someone a smile. It may be the only one they get all day.
