Monday, February 22, 2016

What Could You Do With One More Day?

This February you will find an extra day in on your calendar. That’s because 2016 is a Leap Year.

I spent some time asking people—old and young—if they had an extra day in 2016, what they would do with it? Only one person knew I was referring to Leap Year. The others took it as a philosophical question. But when I explained that there were twenty-nine days in February, their answers stayed the same. These were the top two:

• Sleep
• Catch up on XYZ (work, laundry etc.).

It struck me as odd that given an entire extra twenty-four hours this year, the majority of people wanted to do more of what we all do every day—work and sleep.

Then while at the airport, I posed the question to an older gentleman. His answer changed everything for me. He didn’t understand the question exactly the way I posed it—mostly because my Southern twang didn’t necessarily translate seamlessly with his Brooklyn accent, but it didn't matter. He understood something more important.

“If I had an extra day, I’d spend it with my wife. She’s been gone seven years now and I still miss her like crazy every day. She loved when I did little surprises just for her, for no reason at all.  You know?  I’d leave a note for her or bring her a cannoli from her favorite bakery. It would make her really happy. I’d do that. Just to see her smile. Yeah, that’s what I’d do for sure.”

So here is my challenge: on Monday, February 29th, the day we get once every four years, what if we all used our extra day to do a little surprise for someone—for no reason at all?

I’ve heard it said that love is giving and expecting nothing in return. Most of us do this everyday—but love is sometimes an inward emotion. We think the people around us should intrinsically understand our feelings toward them. But what if we spent Leap Day 2016 showing love outwardly?

• Call an old friend.
• Mend a long-standing grudge.
• Send a card or visit someone who’s unable to go out into the world.
• Bake someone a treat.
• Bring someone you’ve been thinking about flowers.
• Tell someone you love how thankful you are they’re in your life.
• Bake some cookies and drop them by your local fire or police station.
• Draw a picture for someone (even if it's stick people).
• Tell a co-worker how much you appreciate them.
• Or, commit a random act of kindness for someone you don’t even know.

You don’t have to spend money to give people a piece of your love—a piece of your heart. Time is precious, so when we’re given an extra day, perhaps it’s smart to use it just as my friend from Brooklyn suggested: to make someone else happy—just to see them smile.


*Kris Calvert is an author of Romantic Suspense, Paranormal Suspense, Horror and Contemporary Romance.

See her books here: Kris Calvert Website
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