Join in: Pay It Forward Friday

On Friday, someone, somewhere, in Doylestown will walk to his or her car and find an envelope tucked under the windshield wiper.

Inside will be a cheerful note and a $5 bill.

Why?

It's Pay it Forward Friday, the first one of 2013.

It's part of one Doylestown resident's mini revolution to make the town a nicer place to live, work and play.

The idea is based on an old saying: When someone does you a favor, don't pay it back. Pay it forward.

The kindness spreads exponentially when each person chooses three people to "repay" with kindness.

In this particular case, it was Heather Walton, Doylestown resident and Realtor with Class-Harlan Real Estate, who planned to leave the $5 bill and a cheery note on a stranger's car.

Now, Heather would probably be kind of embarrassed to be singled out like this, so let's make sure she's not alone. Chime in and tell us how you can practice random acts of kindess every day.

Don't be shy. The idea isn't to glorify yourself. It's to talk about the nice things, the good stuff, that happens every day but doesn't always get the attention it deserves.

One of my friends, Andrea, wrote recently on her Facebook page about how she spontaneously decided to pay for the order of the person behind her in line at a restaurant.

Because she took the time to mention it, it spurred her friends to think about what they could do to make someone's day.

They weren't the only ones.

Andrea practiced kindness in front of her two young girls.

The girls spent the rest of the afternoon and the days that followed thinking of ways they could perpetrate their own random acts of kindess.

Kindness is contagious.

Pass it on.

Or, better yet, pay it forward.