Stories of Kindness from Around the World

The change inside that brings joy!

Today I was in a generous mood. I handed over a  good sum of money to the some people who are in great need. Its very difficult for me to part with cash. I experience a lot of fear and insecure feeling. I believe I do not have enough for myself. I reached deep within myself to give out the amount.

I could hear my heart beat and fear rising.  But when I looked up to give and saw the joy on the peoples faces it wiped my insecure feeling. I FELT SO PROUD of myself. I patted myself on the back and called myself a brave girl. 

 

1902 Reads
  • Posted by shardagandhi2002
  • Dec 29, 2015
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Group of youth with a cause for good

I volunteer for an NGO called Robinhood army.  We are a group that collects meals from restaurants to distribute to the homeless in the area. We get together every Sunday in our spare time and the mission is simple, to serve our community! So today, we went on a drive to create awareness about our cause and convince more numbers of hotels and eateries to donate food for the homeless.

1520 Reads

A cup of coffee and kindness to keep illness at bay

One morning while enjoying breakfast in my favorite restaurant two women came in and sat in the booth behind me. I overheard them talking about just leaving the pharmacy.

One of them went on to say how bad she was feeling and she didn't know when she was going to be feeling any better since there was no way she could get her prescription filled because she didn't have the money. 

I listened to them try to think of someway they could get the money. As I listened I learned the medicine cost $29. I called the waitress over and asked her to give the women $35 anonymously. Enough for the medicine and their coffee.

1679 Reads

Courageous Freeway Kindness Ensures a Man's Safety

One evening I was in Los Angeles traffic navigating rush hour to get to an orchestra rehearsal. Cars were moving in stop and go traffic at a slow pace. Suddenly I heard horns honking, and a crash. Two car lengths in front of me a motorcyclist had fallen down, rolled off his bike and landed on the freeway! I stopped and shouted to find out if he was OK. He did get up and started to walk his bike off the five lane freeway. I then proceeded to block traffic so he wouldn't get run over and followed him to the side of the freeway. Another driver that had also seen him fall pulled over to help. The driver immediately called for paramedics and Highway Patrol. The motorcyclist used my phone to call Triple A for transport, I then waited for the emergency help to arrive and gave CHP my statement.  I'm so thankful the ... Read Full Story >>

2583 Reads

Hugging The Repair Man

Had to call a repair man for my oven. I was totally lost without it. He worked endlessly to find the problem and managed to save me money. We exchanged stories about life, sons, learning, technology through the hours he committed to fixing my oven. I got so joyous when it worked, I hugged him and gave him a big smile with my many thanks.I think he may have been somewhat embarrassed initially, but as he left he said his work is worth more than his paycheck as he gets to meet really special people. I may have been one.....Smiles!

1149 Reads

Love Letters Around Town

A few months ago I watched a KarmaTube video about a mother who takes her children out in their community. They joyfully run around and distribute love notes in different neighborhoods. Loved the video!

About an hour later I had to go out and I left my car parked in a parking lot. When I returned there was a note that said "I love you!" on my windshield. It was written in red crayon by a young child. I just couldn't believe the coincidence. I am a teacher for grades one and two, so I thought of a way to pay it forward.

My class watched the love letter video and then made wonderful notes. The children scurried around the school hiding their love notes. They were so joyful. I still find these notes throughout our school and it brings a smile to my face. Our next job is to send love letters to the world! Love you xo

2974 Reads

Kindness to our little outdoor neighbors too

I feed my backyard squirrels. Last year, every time I took a walk in our woodsy neighborhood, I collected acorns and filled my freezer with them so that could feed the squirrels all winter. Alas, this year the oak trees have produced hardly any acorns at all! So my wildlife catering budget will go up this winter. I wonder if  the drought prevented the oak trees from making an acorn crop this year? If so, consider helping out our furry little friends.           

Also, YOU can help birds and squirrels by making sure you trim trees ONLY in the months when the trees do not have nests with babies in them. In the San Francisco Bay Area, that's November and December. Check out the picture of the mom squirrel and her tiny baby. The babies are killed or injured when falling from their nests when trees are being cut. Thank you for being mindful of this!

1317 Reads

Post it Note Kindness at the Mall

December kindness for today.  I visited the mall, went into ladies' fitting rooms and bathroom, left positive messages on heart post-its. One of my favorite RAKS (random acts of kindness) to do! Our words matter. They can encourage and build people up, or shame and tear them down. 

When I was putting the hearts on the bathroom mirror a little girl saw me and kept saying, "hearts, hearts, I love hearts!" :)

I left a stack of blank post-its and a pen behind in the bathroom for others to add messages if they'd like. ♡ 

16.6K Reads

Warm Heart Warm Hands for the Winter

With the winter weather kicking in the homeless are having a tough time. I see them every day sitting on cardboard with a sleeping bag and or dog to keep them warm. Usually, I buy them a hot drink or hot food, hoping that will help warm them. 

This year I prepared some small packages as well. Each has a pair of gloves, because I see many with bare hands in such cold weather. I also included the small hand warmers you get in the 99 cent stores. Then I add snacks, hygiene products and for those with a dog, some dried dog food.

1817 Reads

With a heart of gratitude, mindful of those who serve

I feel its so easy to take for granted those persons who are our service providers, there is tendency to forget them and only remember them during Christmas.

The grocery person who supplies regular grocery items for running my kitchen, the school driver who takes my daughter to school safely every day right through the year.  The persons who carry garbage from our flats twice a week and the mechanic who keeps checking my two wheeler and helps me maintain to ensure that its in good condition and runs smoothly on road, and the list goes on.

I find most of time we take even basic necessities in life for granted. so often we consume in a hurry without even thinking for a second the process that is behind and has gone through before it comes up as a breakfast or a lunch or even a dinner. Its a great reminder today to be thankful and grateful for all the service providers who have made my life so much better and easy.
 Glad to be grateful :)

 

1574 Reads

The Gift of Kindness

I think that the greatest compliment I could give or receive is to tell or be told by the other person that I am a kind. It is my intention as much as possible show kindness to people. 

I once read a book by Sylvia Borstein which began and ended with: "Since life is so difficult, how can we be anything but kind?" The truth of this statement really touched me and although I often fail I try to be as kind as possible to all whose paths I cross each day. I know how much a beautiful smile can make my day, and hope I can give that gift to others.

May anyone who reads this be happy and filled with peace and I sent you all a big smile of appreciation.

1320 Reads

Priceless friendship from a five dollar microwave

One day I was driving by an apartment complex and an elderly lady flagged me down. I pulled over and asked if she needed a ride somewhere. She told me no and then asked me if I needed a microwave. I said, "no"...and asked why? She told me she had one for sale for just five dollars. Curious to find out what her situation was, I asked her to let me see it. The microwave looked like new and was worth a lot more than five bucks. I asked her what she needed the money for. What she told me broke my heart. She said she wanted some bologna, bananas and bread. I told her I would buy it but I needed to go to the bank for the money. I rushed to the grocery store and bought her bananas, bologna and bread. When I returned to her apartment I gave her the ... Read Full Story >>

3155 Reads

Cultivating Generosity

I gave a man $10 today. I don't normally do this as to me $10 is a fair bit of money, plus it's a note and not just 'loose change'. But I gave it. Whether it was the right thing to do or not I don't know.  I feel it was.  A man approached me asking for $2 for some milk. He assured me it wasn't for drugs. "Yay" I thought, as I don't have any coins on me so I have an excuse to say "no". So I did. I explained I only had a $10 note. He said that would be fine and he would swap me his change for my note. I thought: Totally an unfair deal! Then I realized it perhaps wasn't for milk when he held out his hand with $4.40 change in coins. Which is more than enough for a carton of milk. But I did ... Read Full Story >>

829 Reads

Secret Garden Elf Helping a Neighbor out

When trimming our hedge, I noticed that our neighbor had still not cut his half back. He often works away from home and is not all that interested in gardening.

The snow could come any time now and would split the hedge if it is heavy. Rather than being annoyed I decided to go round to his side and trim it as well (the houses have a connected path along the back) . I put the trimmings into his compost bin together with the leaves that were smothering his lawn.

Hope he is happy with this rather than annoyed that I did stuff in his garden without his permission ;-)

1233 Reads

Working out the kindness muscles

Yesterday while attending a fitness class I met a new participant who was nervous and shy about taking the class for the first time. I did my best to calm her fears and make her feel welcome. I co-lead the class and kept an eye on her and helped her when she seemed loss.

 After class there was a Christmas luncheon for the participants and I invited her along and she accepted. I introduced her to those who were sitting around and they also made her feel welcome. We all encouraged to her to come back to class on Thursday. She seemed pleased to be so readily made part of the group. It felt good to take the opportunity to help someone who was so visibly uncomfortable.
 

1199 Reads

Elderly's kind service to their community

A story on receiving kindness.  I used to pass through on a daily basis  a busy four lane highway and intersection in Adajan, Surat India. There aren't ever traffic police to be seen controlling vehicles movement on  this critical four lane crossroads even during peak rush hours.

I always got stuck in traffic getting angry at our Surat police. Sometimes I fumed at other peoples' insensitivity of hurriedly thinking of themselves first instead of kindly letting others pass though. Many times I too thought to get out the car and direct the traffic. But it was not possible. 

Few months back a group of elderly people who used to sit and socialize in the 'Shantikunj' garden took this initiative to direct the traffic on peak hours daily. They were doing it without any expectations and just to help society.

I was really happy to see the non-chaotic lanes. I salute those elderly people and thank them too. There is kindness in our society. We all have kindness somewhere deep in our hearts. We need to bring it out and spread kindness in the society.

1624 Reads

Sister Clare's A+ Kindess in Trigonometry

There was a wonderful nun when I was a junior in high school. Her name was Sr. Clare Lentz. I often wonder what she would be doing today. She is probably only ten or so years older than I am! She was a very kind person. Her kindness has always stayed with me. Here is what happened. I was in her trigonometry class. I was not a stellar student because I was not that interested in working too hard, but I did get B's and Cs and would have been mortified to fail anything. I failed one of the trigonometry tests. Really failed - a 30% or something worse. She had just passed the papers back and walked by me, smiled and whispered quietly - "Don't worry - you just mixed up sine and cosine - no big deal. You will do fine next time." That made me feel so much better!  I have ... Read Full Story >>

1527 Reads

A food bank owner's wish for a young boy

I run a small thrift store to help support our small food bank. A mother stopped by with her ten year old son and asked if we could help her family out with a few groceries. I said yes and gathered up several bags of groceries for her.

When I returned to her vehicle where her son was, I asked if he could go into the food bank and select a few of his favorite foods. She said yes. He chose his favorite cereal and fruit roll ups. 

I wanted to make his visit special and even though we had made only $32.00 in the thrift store that day I gave him $20.00 of it. I asked him to surprise his mother and buy her and his lunch on the way home. I wanted him to remember this day as more than a trip to the food bank. I wanted him to be blessed with the possibility of acting on this moment for the rest of his life. 

1347 Reads

Any Day is a Good day for Random Acts of Kindess

I am knitting some Christmas coasters for my fellow volunteers and paid employees at the British Heart Foundation shop, just for fun. I was hoping to finish them today but they are taking longer than I expected. I have done  three of the ten I wanted to, as I was hoping to give them out tomorrow. But any day is good for a Random Act of Kindness :) I feel shy about handing them out but I will try and be courageous as I would like them to have them. :) 

1743 Reads

Quick Thinking Santa in a Hardware Store

I would like to share a heartwarming story with you. My friend has white hair with a white beard to match. He was at the hardware store the other day and a little girl came down the aisle with her parents and said to him,  "Hey Santa, why are you here and why are you not in your red suit?

My friend, thinking quickly, replied, "Well, I lost a lot of weight and Mrs. Claus is making my new suit and I am here because I need tools to fix my sleigh. What would you like for Christmas?" I thought it was fantastic that he was able to be so spontaneous at spreading a little bit of joy.

1790 Reads




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