In the earliest days of the pandemic, the very idea of reaching out and touching someone was suddenly suspect. However, as leaves begin to fall and the world feels like it is beginning to find balance in the new normal, I keep thinking now, more than ever before, we have to extend a hand even if we might not ever meet the subject of our kindness in person, or actually come in contact with anyone at all.

Have you ever been the lucky recipient of someone who decided to pay it forward? Whether it was a stranger who prepaid for your drink at a takeout window or the person in front of you with the cart full of groceries offering to let you slip ahead in line with your handful of items, chances are you’ve had someone reach out to you. That brief moment of kindness likely stuck with you throughout the day.

This year has been tough on all of us, but if we give a little kindness— even one compliment a day, issued to a stranger we encounter, costs us nothing and brings them momentary happiness— it will come back around.

My friend, as I sat down to write this, I was going to suggest we could all remember to extend a hand every now and again, reach out to lift someone up in a time of need. However, I’m growing an idea here and would like to suggest this: let’s all take a moment every day to pay it forward throughout the entire month of September.

More than once, I’ve written about accountability and I’m making myself accountable to you here now that I will do something kind for an individual every day this month, whether it ever comes back to me or not, simply because the world needs us to extend a hand to each other right now. Will you join me?

Gino Pezzani