My birthday was a beautiful day with 32 acts of love. It may have been a random hump day in the middle of the week but I was full of so much love and gratitude for people in my life both in my city and across the country. I know I reserve one day a year for tons of acts of kindness but there is something to this feeling you get and I should definitely make more of an effort to incorporate selfless actions more into my life. So here’s how the day went…

1. I got up nice and early to hit the gym before work. As I was getting off the streetcar I handed a thank you note to the driver. He made a point of saying good morning to everyone getting on the streetcar so I hope I helped brightened his day.

2. When I got to the gym I put a motivational quote in a gym locker. I really hope whoever found it through the day actually read it and didn’t think it was garbage and threw it out.

3. My dear friends at Popeye’s Supplements have been in my life for 3 crazy years. I’ve known them since I began my sponsorship with Magnum Nutraceuticals. The newest store just opened up on the Danforth and I had a demo there the night before my bday. Andrew the store manager wonderfully donated $10 off coupons. I stapled sample packs of our pre-workout Serum to the cards and handed them out at the gym after my workout. I think I did it a bit creepily and would hand it to people and say “I have a gift for you” in a lower voice of course because that doesn’t make me weird lol.

4. And my final morning act before rushing to the office was to use my Starbucks birthday reward on an unsuspecting woman. There was no one behind me in line when I arrived so I told the staff what I wanted to do. A woman rushed into the store. Didn’t even go behind me but plopped her purse on the counter in front of me and started rummaging for her wallet. She ordered her coffee and the teller rang it in. We scanned my app super fast and I ran out before the lady could even look up. I really truly hope that brightened her day and she passed on some kindness later.

5. I have a love affair with cupcakes from Fresh. They are baked at Sweets from the Earth bakery so I put in an order during the week and they arrived before 10am. I was supposed to be in a large meeting so I was going to just show up and plop them on the table and smile but instead walked around with them to hand them out. I loved the shocked look when people asked if it was 1. my birthday and 2. did I buy my own cupcakes and 3. when I announced they were healthier versions! I even saved one for myself 🙂

6. Lunch time came with more fun. I printed off colourful happy quotes and plastered them on cars around my work neighbourhood.

7. I zipped over to Metro to grab a bouquet of my favourite flowers, Gerber Daisies and handed them out to woman on my way back to the office. Every single one of those ladies smiled so huge receiving one.

One of my friends joined me and snapped a creeper shot of me handing out my last two. I think I picked the exact same flower colour last year as well so that was kind of cool.

Finally to round out the day the universe decided to give me two opportunities I hadn’t planned on.

8. Someone from my past who I was having a very hard time forgiving walked into the gym as I was on the spin bike getting 30 mins of cardio in. I’ve usually ignored them as I do evening cardio but this time I looked up and smiled and genuinely felt at peace. That random act of love was for myself but I hope they could feel the forgiveness in my smile.

9. And then I was off to my next location for good deeds and was presented with an opportunity to help an older man lower his grocery cart off the streetcar. Another lady helped as well and I was standing there grinning like a lunatic.

10. I met my boyfriend at City Place so we could spoil our run club friends at Tribe Fitness. We gave them all water bottles after their hard run.

11. My boyfriend also bought a box of granola bars so we could find some homeless people on our way uptown. We drove up Yonge for a bit until a found a man outside a fast food place. I placed all of them in his hat and hope it made a small difference in his day.

12. The final act of the night was buying a green tea for the night concierge at my building. He actually said “How’d you know I’d need one?”

And then my friends created so much love they had me happy crying every time I saw a post or read a text.

13. Kyla is a personal trainer and trained all her clients for free yesterday!

14. Serena dropped off lunch & flowers to a friend at her work and brought chocolates for all her co-workers!

15. Aubrie left $75 for Rooster Coffee House to use for customers all day! They even tweeted about it!

16. Erin was selling a couch for $200 and when the people showed up to buy it she gave it to them for free.

17. Krysten bought coffee for three people in line behind her in the morning

18. Morgan bought a coffee for her coworker after she bought a new latte that she didn’t like and then surprised her coworkers with doughnuts later in the day

19. Chivon bought food for a homeless person on her way home

20. Todd bought lunch for a woman in her 80s and said it felt like pure magic

21. Jenna baked homemade sugar cookies and dropped them off at an animal shelter for the staff (I even got my own goody bag when I surprised Tribe)

22. Olivier baked cookies for his coworkers

23. Clifton paid off late fees for two patrons of the Fort York Library (they even posted about it!)

24. Jess bought someone tea in line behind her

25. Katie bought lunch for someone, bought coffee for the office & held doors open for people longer than she would have normally

26. Tracey gave away 5 free massages to people who don’t have benefits and offered 2 free massages to 2 people of my suggestion

27. Patrick cleaned up the mess someone’s dog left at the entrance of his building so that nobody could accidentally step in it

28. Allegra left a Starbucks card for the maid at her hotel room in Nashville

29. Rachelle gave directions to a lost family at Union Station

30. Barb paid for someone’s coffee

31. Axel let the nanny go home early

32. Joe bumped up a paycheque by a few dollars

33. Ray cut up / removed two large trees that fell in his elderly neighbour’s yard

34. Annie baked healthy muffins for friends and neighbours

35. Allison gave a larger tip at dinner

36. Abe 3 days ago stopped to help an injured runner during a race

Today I’m 32 in adult years and 36 in love years. I am thankful, grateful and feel truly blessed. It is so awesome to see our world full of a little bit more love.