This past weekend, a bunch of us participated in the Wisdom 2.0 conference in San Francisco. This conference was housed in an events wing of a large hotel (aka below street level/basement with no windows or fresh air) and I personally struggled with connecting to the overwhelming river of 2,000 attendees and all that was going on in the space. But a bunch of us decided to do anonymous acts of kindness, preparing surprise gifts, envelopes and messages to hand out and post in bathrooms and other places for people to find. By the end of the conference, probably 20 people or more had joined in and helped us with the game. It made a place of connection in a sea of disconnection. We all experimented with how to give these prizes away (some were starbucks gift cards, charity checks, cash, chocolates, quotes and love notes, candy hearts, magic wands, and amex gift cards!). Should I anonymously post the envelopes inside a bathroom stall for someone to find? Hand it to someone and run away? I found that the most rewarding was to hand the envelope to someone and tell them, "This is for you to give away." People would look at me as if to say, "Wait, I might want it," and then I could see the excitement wash over their face when they started thinking about who to give it to. Sometimes they told me who they were going to give it to. Sometimes they asked, "What's in it?" And I'd say, "I don't know. Something awesome!" I loved how the ripple of love went from whomever made that particular envelope (we definitely lost track of who did what, there were so many of us making them...) to whoever I then I gave it to, and then whoever they gave it to. I love thinking about the pay it forward conversation:

"I want to give this to you!"
"Where did you get it?"
"Someone gave it to me to give away."
"Who?"
"I don't know"
"What's in it?"
"I don't know"

And then they open it and love pours out.

Together we probably put out 200 secret notes over three days. What a worthwhile game to play.