Stories of Kindness from Around the World

Listening to the voice

I had a few things I needed to do in the city today. One thing required I park my car in a multi-storey car park. I only needed to be in there for a minute. I thought it would be free as I was parked less than 5 minutes. But nope, it cost me $2. I was so annoyed, so angry. I stuck my $5 note into the machine and when the change fell into the change compartment I heard a voice that said " leave it. Leave it for someone else to find, it will make their day." So I did. I left it along with a smile card.

Walking away I felt happy. I felt good and no longer upset or annoyed. I love that voice, the inner voice of knowing and I'm so grateful to have heard it and listened ♥
 

Finding A Little More ...

Finding a little more happy in each day with simple acts of kindness gets those little endorphins flowing from our brain making even more joyfullness. Studying The Science of Happiness, my homework is doing five random acts of kindness in one day and recording our levels of happiness. This will be my first one of the day. I send you love and healing energy to all the wonderful people here on KindSpring. May your day be filled with rainbows and fun! Happy Saturday.

For The Heroes

My daughter and I just went to the local fire house and dropped off some homemade brownies for the firefighters. Felt good. :) #AprilRAoK

Opening A Door

While being in town today I saw across the street a 50ish business woman leaving a bank building. She seemed to be in a hurry ... but she realized that an elderly woman who was using a cane wanted to enter the bank as well. She turned back after some steps, opened the door and held it open for the lady. As soon as the elderly lady was inside she rushed away ... :-)

Awareness and Kindness :-) Not only for the elderly lady but for me as well (although she certainly didn't see me smiling, but I'm certain she felt the good vibes :-)).

Lemons

Brought some lemons from our tree to give one of the other volunteers at the soup kitchen as I had promised him last week. We were both working with another kid so I took some out to give to him too. One of the patrons thought that we were handing out lemons so I gave her some too! Wish I had enough to share with everyone, but felt nice to be able to give it to someone who wanted one.

Saturday Morning

• Left some "like new" books (novels) in a public space dedicated to giving/receiving books
• Paid library fines for someone else as an RAOK
• Wrote a heartfelt thank you note to someone special telling them how they have inspired me

Tip :)

Today my family gave a larger than normal tip to a very nice young waiter. He seemed genuine and did a great job. He was also very thankful for the tip and smiled as he walked away. We felt we made his night better. :)

An Anonymous Gift

I got my income tax refund and my food stamps on the same day so it felt like a windfall. I put 20 dollars and a peace dove in an envelope that said from anonymous who wants to bless you and I put it into an older neighbor couples mail box who has been doing the lawn for my dad.i heard him talking about money problems when my dad did their taxes for them.

Bike in the Rain

The other day I went for a bike ride. When I was still 10 minutes or so from my house it started to pour. As a car passed me by, I watched as a pair of hands extended out the passenger side window to form a heart. In spite of the rain, this action made me smile the rest of the way home.

Cape-gazette -delaware- Fifth-graders Participated ...

Cape-Gazette -Delaware- Fifth-graders participated in the Kindness Matters Essay Contest during The Great Kindness Challenge. For five days in January, Rehoboth Elementary School students joined students throughout the nation dedicating the week to creating a culture to prevent bullying through kindness and respect. The winning essay by Swain Lee: Kindness: What it should be. Kindness is harder than people think. You can't just do nice things and become a kind person, you must truly work for it. The factors of being kind are so complicated and vast that no word or words can even get close to defining it. But really kindness is just a matter of whether or not you are. If kindness was easy enough that you just have to do kind things, then kindness would not be kindness, it would be doing kind things. I am writing this essay because one, I have to, and two, because many things are not kind, but ... Read Full Story >>

No Boundaries

I am friendly with an elderly lady at work (I'm pretty new at the company), most of the staff do not communicate with her...she does have some unique traits. 😊😊

Today she seemed down, she didn't stop at my desk for our usual good morning. Later in the day I found time to chat with her and ask if things were ok.

She seemed shocked and surprised that I had noticed something was up...it turns out she had broken a tooth and was just embarrassed it still needed fixing.

After we talked she seemed more herself, I was happy to know everything was ok and that I had crossed that co-worker boundary and dipped a toe in the friendship pool😊👍. I think she was happy that I cared if she was ok, I'm glad tha she knows that I care ❤

I Have Just Finished ...

I have just finished helping my Spanish friend with her resume! We spent some 3 plus hours at it...It is fascinating to read the info, digest it, feel my neurons at work, incredible synapsis going on, flourishing the terms that express exactly what's needed.

I thanked her for the opportunity to function at another level of deduction and being able to portray results. I suggested she finish the resume with a phrase that says who she is....I wrote on my resume some time ago: "I reach for the stars with my feet on the ground." and as a personal one: :Enjoy life!" Love the challenge!

Now this afternoon at 2 pm i'm going to the retirement home as there's a Volunteer Recognition Party going on and I'm invited....cheer to all!

Gluten-free ninja kindness

I won a couple of vouchers for my favourite brand of gluten-free products- a relief as these are quite pricy! I stuck a smile card to one and hid it amongst the products of that brand in the supermarket, so someone else can get something yummy to eat and maybe a smile too :)

Happy Anniversary!

For my next kind act, I decided to give a card and a bottle of champagne to a coworker and his partner for their 7 year anniversary. He mentioned that it was coming up in a previous conversation so I added it to my work calendar so I wouldn't forget. He was so surprised and said that no one has ever given them a card/gift for their anniversary. This made me so happy!

Bowl Of Twisted Goodies

When my students came in from recess today, they all had a treat on their desks, a small bowl of pretzels, and a RAoK card to pass on and Pay It Forward. #AprilRAoK

Third Batch of Seeds

This is third batch of garden seeds with quotes on them that I've gifted to health club. They are a HUGE hit!

Brought home some of their pens home to put artificial flowers on, which were also a HUGE hit!

Blessed and grateful that they are so very receptive to my giving :)).

Blessings of community, my kind friends.

Be Good Do Good

I work as a Guest Relations Manager in a hotel which is currently closed because we are only open during the summer season. The administrative departments such as accounting, management and reservation department of the hotel  work 12 months ( full time ).

For some reason, everyone at work looks really stressed and exhausted. I understand that everyone has their own problems in life, but I would like to see them smile from time to time.

So, I decided that it would be a good idea to bring them a gift as small as a banana or cake once a week. I do not make a lot of money, but the idea of bringing them a present once a week makes me really happy especially the smiling faces that I get or a warm "Thank you" is making me so grateful for the kindness that I have towards other people..

So be good do good and make people Smile.... Take care everyone ..

An unlikley friend helped pick-up trash

The winter thaw has revealed a lot of debris. Even hiking up the woods I came across random trash scattered along the trail. I have a habit of picking up as much of it as I can and carrying it out to throw away when I hike: I find this trait can be contagious when others witness it.

Today I picked up a few bottle caps and I saved them for a friend who is an artist and is using them for a new project ... also cans, random styrofoam packaging,and a few cups.

At one point my dog started running over to point out trash to me, please with herself and her ability to nose it out - this made me laugh. Apparently recycling is not limited to humans. Cheers to green spaces, wagging tails and laughter found in unexpected situations.

Do Unto Others

I heard my neighbor had been taken from his home by ambulance today. Knowing he has no family in the area, I found the hospital he had been taken to, visited with him and made sure he had my phone number in case he needed anything - and a ride home when he's ready.

From The Pittsburgh Post-gazette:Thank ...

From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

Thank you to the kind stranger who found my son’s wallet on the Roberto Clemente Bridge sidewalk on Feb. 18.

In spite of the record-breaking freezing temperatures, this person saw my son’s Warhol ID and walked all the way to the museum to turn the wallet in to security. Pittsburgh is a great city because of you.

SARAH QUESEN
Squirrel Hill