Pathways to Kindness Audit

The bottomline here is 'When someone does you a big favor, don't pay it back. Pay It Forward.' wikiquote.org

Pay It Forward: A Novel  by Catherine Ryan Hyde` About the novel: "Catherine Ryan Hyde's Pay It Forward takes as its premise the bumper-sticker phrase "Think Globally, Act Locally" and builds a novel around it. The hero of her story is young Trevor McKinney, a 12-year-old whose imagination is sparked by an extra-credit assignment in Social Studies: "Think of an idea for world change, and put it into action." Trevor's idea is deceptively simple: do a good deed for three people, and in exchange, ask each of them to "pay it forward" to three more. "So nine people get helped. Then those people have to do twenty-seven.... Then it sort of spreads out." Trevor's early attempts to get his project off the ground seem to end in failure: a junkie he befriends ends up back in jail; an elderly woman whose garden he tends dies unexpectedly. But even after the boy has given up on his plan, his acts of kindness bear unexpected fruit, and soon an entire movement is underway and spreading across America."

Sources to find quotable quotes:
Christianity:

BIBLE VERSES ABOUT ACTS OF KINDNESS  -- includes Bible verses related to Acts of Kindness from the King James Version (KJV)

Hinduism:

• Compassion is kindness to all living beings especially when they are in distress. Non-covetousness is self satisfaction with what one has been allotted in life. Bhagavad-Gita: Chapter 16, Verse 1,2,3
• The epic is full of examples of compassion and kindness shown by Rama to the people who sought his help or simply surrendered to Him. [Valmiki’s Ramayana]

Islam:

• Quran Chapter : 107. Surah al-Ma'un (The Small Kindness).

• Hadith: "God did not send me to be harsh, or cause harm, but He sent me to teach and make things easy." - Sahih Muslim, Hadith 707
• "Kindness is a mark of faith, and whoever is not kind has no faith." (Muslim)
• "Whoever is kind, Allah will be kind to him; therefore be kind to man on the earth. He Who is in heaven will show mercy on you." [Abu Dawud: Tirmidhi] -- [source: Moral Virtues]

Judaism:

• The Price of Kindness by Rabbi Yisrael Rutman
• True Kindness - the Crux of Torah, By Nechoma Greisman

On the same shelf:

Small Acts of Kindness Work Wonders with Audit Clients   image courtesy: thatauditguy.com 

• Spiritual Assessment in Healthcare Practice  Wilfred McSherry 
• Someone a little nicer | An experiment in kindness
• A Spiritual Audit of Corporate America: A Hard Look at Spirituality, Religion, and Values in the Workplace  Ian Mitroff
• Punishment: The Supposed Justifications: A Critical Audit of Classical and Contemporary Attempts to Establish the Morality of Punishment  Ted Honderich
• Just Get On With It: A Caring, Compassionate Kick Up the Ass!  Ali Campbell
• Implosion: Can America Recover from Its Economic and Spiritual Challenges in Time?  Joel C. Rosenberg
• Conversations In Silence: A Diary of a Journey with a Spiritual Master  Narendra
• Examining Library Spaces through a “Kindness Audit” 

Have you ever considered doing a “kindness audit” at your library?

In the HyperlibMOOC class, Michael Stephens discusses the concept of a “kindness audit” – look at your library space and examine how kind it is for your patrons.


• Is the signage positive?
• Are your service desks welcoming?
• Can users find their way easily?
• What obstacles do your users encounter?