Stories of Kindness from Around the World

I was out of town this weekend and anxious to get home to my responsibilities. My mother has a dear friend who is dying of cancer, and since my mom was out of town she offered to take my nephew and I to lunch and play at the pool at their country club.

I already wasn't feeling well and I really didn't want to go. I just kept thinking about how I needed to head home and prepare for my week. After some thought, I realized this women is a wonderfully kind lady, always been good to my mom and my family, her days are numbered and even though I don't feel like it I should feel honored that she would like to spend some of her last hours with me.

So I organized it and took my nephew to meet her and play in the pool. I was too tired for all the pool action my 8 year old nephew had in store for me but I pushed myself because my moms friend enjoyed seeing us play and I was making memories with my nephew.

I originally made myself do it to practice kindness towards her, my mother and nephew. But really the kindness was extended to me. I spent some time talking with her and her husband about my future and got some new ideas. But I think the greatest gift I receive was the joyful kind positive attitude coming from a dying lady. It was really touching and made me realize that I need to have a much more positive attitude with life in general.

She was very casual when talking about her illness and spoke about how she has been teaching her husband to cook certain dishes so he will know how to make them when she is gone. And he was laughing about how he keeps adding things to the list of what she needs to teach him before she goes so she will stick around longer.

With the hustle and bustle of each day whether it's rushing to work, errands, getting school work done, getting your children to school, errands, chores, etc. we get so consumed in our own little worlds. This experience really made me think about how lucky I am even when things go wrong and how I can be a much kinder, more positive and generous person. It helped me realize I should be thinking of others more than myself and my mini-drama's aren't bad at all. It was a very enlightening experience.