Ghosting It Forward
January 3rd, 2010 by John Wolfe
Borrowed from the book and movie, Pay It Forward, Ghosting It Forward embraces the concept of doing a good deed for at least three people, and then asking them to do the same — all via a Halloween theme. The purpose of Ghosting It Forward is to generate positive, random acts of kindness for friends, family members or even total strangers during the month of October. It’s called “ghosting” because of Halloween and the kind act is meant to be anonymous, sort of like a ghost.
Here’s an example of “ghosting” in action, taken from the Ghosting It Forward website:
“What a fun time we had ghosting the neighborhood! I filled three pumpkin buckets with candles, a Halloween potholder, a Halloween dish towel and candies. Sherilyn filled her three bags with assorted goodies. Sherilyn and I decided to go ghosting together, along with our kids and my husband, [who] drove the getaway van.
“We stopped close to the driveway, while the kids ran to the house and rang the doorbell. We laughed so hard as the kids scampered back to the van, sometimes losing shoes, tripping, or screaming at the barking dogs. It felt like a night of trick-or-treating in reverse mode!
“I am hoping this will inspire others to take time out of their busy schedule and have as much fun as we did!”
Personally, I love this idea, as I try to make performing small, random acts of kindness a regular thing throughout the year anyway. I usually receive a lot of odd looks while performing most kind acts, but then again I’m already accustomed to getting odd looks. 
However, Ghosting It Forward has inspired me to take it new a whole new level, especially this coming October.
Here’s a vid from YT user, KNecromancer explaining Ghosting It Forward and why she participates:
For full details on the ghosting project, be sure and checkout ghostingitforward.org.
January 3rd, 2010 at 9:37 pm
That is sooo awesome! I’ve been doing this kind of thing for years and years, but didn’t know there were others wanting to do the same thing. My favorite is cleaning up a cemetery. Another year, I gave an elderly neighbor a Jack O’Lantern I carved. I told her I carved too many of them and couldn’t use them all (I didn’t). I’m always the one who lets people cut in front of me in the grocery store. It’s great Karma–every single time I’ve done it (probably 5-8 times a month) as soon as I let someone cut, they open a new lane and ask me to move up and go first.
January 3rd, 2010 at 10:00 pm
Oh how I wish EVERYONE would preform random acts of kindness. What a beautiful world that would be.
So, teasing us hey John
“…has inspired me to take it new a whole new level, especially this coming October.” Hmmm what could you possibly have up your sleeve for 2010 Halloween? Maybe you’ll give me a hint….hmmmm? Or do I already know? I’ll find out soon enough. Ah thoughtful people, they are the best and seems to be hard to find these days. I’m glad it’s still alive in many today. Nice reminder John for everyone and have yourself a wonderful first week of the new year.
January 3rd, 2010 at 10:31 pm
Random Acts of Kindness
John you picked an excellent day to bring this forth. I just read something that touched me greatly and I thought you and your viewers might appreciate the story as well. In this weeks “People” magazine on page 130 is an awesome story of a flight attendant who had an idea one day for our soldiers over seas. For five years Robin Schmidt has sent hundreds of journals from Americans full of well wishes for them. After the safety instructions but before the drink tray comes out she would pass around empty journals and ask that whoever would like to say something to our soldiers in the middle east, to feel free to express their thoughts. People can write as much or as little as they want to but it makes the world of difference for our men and women overseas.
Back in 1978-81 I would do something similar, only not that grand on scale. I would get the information of where to mail letters to our soldiers in the military for moral support and appreciation. At that time I would “adopt” a few soldiers to write with and we would quickly become pin-pals. LoL, another term you don’t hear much about anymore. The men I wrote to had great fun getting the letters and enjoyed expressing their thoughts and sending a letter back. Even for me at the time, it would brighten my day to get letters from them so the feeling was mutual. I think nowadays our soldiers need our support more than ever before. Sorry this was so long and I know it’s not really Halloween related but I did feel it fit in perfectly given today’s blog entry. Thank you for letting me share, your the best!
January 4th, 2010 at 8:55 pm
autumnforest,
As they say in Australia — Good on you! I think that’s so fantastic. I love doing similar things when I’m out and about.
I always hold doors for people, return shopping carts (even when they’re not my own) to the corral, pick up nails or screws from parking lots to prevent people from getting flat tires and I pick up items off the store’s floor to prevent shoppers from tripping. If grocery and department store security/management see me doing these things with their cameras, they probably think I work there… LOL.
That’s a great idea about giving someone a jack-o-lantern! You’ve inspired me to find time to do that one this year. Not only is it nice, but it may also encourage the recipient to celebrate or partake in giving candy to trick-or-treaters (when they normally don’t).
Goldie,
Good on you, too, my friend! Thanks for sharing your RAOK (my abbreviation for random acts of kindness — thought that sounds better than RAK).
That’s an awesome thing to do for the service men and women. Though I’ve never served, I was a military brat. It can definitely get lonely when you’re so far from home, but I can’t even imagine what these guys and gals are going through in the Middle East right now. They absolutely need some kindness sent their way, as do their family members here in the states.
I’m not sure I’m going to do anything really big, RAOK wise, during this October. I’ll probably do something similar to the ideas on the Ghosting It Forward site. Aside from my giveaways, here at Season of Shadows, I’ve never really done an RAOK (in person) with a Halloween theme before.
So, I’m looking forward to doing it in a Halloween way. That was what I meant by a new level. However, I do have some ideas for implementing new RAOKs throughout the rest of this year. I can tell you about those, if you like.
Hope you’re having a great week, too!