Stories of Kindness from Around the World

A Raspberry Danish to Make a Secretary Feel Appreciated

Earlier this year, we had a week at work that was a little hectic. Lots of sickness was going around. A few teachers were out sick, and one of the school secretaries had shingles and was out for over a week. The other secretary had been trying hard to be "super secretary" answering the door, phones and keeping the prinicpal, students and teachers happy.  She hadn't complained, but I knew she wasn't feeling too appreciated.

One morning, I stopped at the local bakery and picked up a raspberry danish for her. When I got to work, I drew purple and pink hearts on the white bakery bag and wrote Happy Valentine's Day and Thank You on it. She gave me a huge smile when I handed it to her.

After she ate it,  she visited me in my office and gave me a great big hug and expressed her thanks to me.

We all want feel appreciated, especially when we go above and beyond at work.

A Little Bit of Extra Love on Valentine's Day

My church was assigned Valentine’s Day to serve a meal to homeless people.  After reading a HelpOthers.org story about giving flowers out at a meal program, I formed the idea to augment our church activity with some colorful floral life.  Building off of my intention, a fellow church member came forward to help pay for the flowers.  At the event, we fed the hungry souls until they were stuffed, and then we gave flowers to anyone who wanted one.  Our pastor even joined in to pass out flowers at the tables.

Later that day, I saw a lady with a carnation in her hand hugging the pastor, which led me to believe that the flower must have touched her in a special way.  It is great that through a simple idea on this website, we were able to bring the food serving experience to a deeper level with some flower power!

Homeless Yet Helping Other Homeless

My boyfriend and I just went cross country from Florida to California.  We are currently in Palm Springs and it is wonderful. 

In this paradise there are also homeless people.  I saw one today that asked for money while we were sitting outside of Starbucks.  We couldn't give him anything because all we use is plastic.  This kid was my age, which is to say in his 20s.  

We had leftovers from earlier that day from Chilis and we gave it to him.  It was salsa and chips. Yummy!  Truthfully, we are homeless now too but we have money saved to start a life in an apartment.  

Acting On The Voice Of Kindness

I was riding my bike around lunch time today and passed a man sitting just off the sidewalk with his face in his hands.   My first thought was: "Stop! See if he needs help." But I was riding fast.  I slowed down and looked back.  It  looked as though he was either praying or crying, maybe both.  I decided that meant that I had to turn around.  I rode up and asked if he was ok.  No response.  For a second, I thought he might be a drunk or a bum.  But I asked again. He looked up with clear eyes and bright teeth, and gave me a big shiny smile.  He was about 55-60, wearing denim overalls and a farmer's hat, and had the hands of a manual laborer.  I quickly discovered that he spoke no English but I was able to make out that he was hungry and he had no ... Read Full Story >>

Heart To Heart And Out Of My Comfort Zone

I took my homemade cookies and candies to church today and came home with an empty tray which I was hoping for.  I also took about 20 pencils with printed hearts on them and glued bigger hearts on them and passed them out to some children and some adults that I wouldn't normally get the chance to talk to. This was a good way to show love and take me out of my comfort zone. It sure was worth it,  I got a lot of smiles back!!  A little can do a lot !!   :D 

Parking Permit to the Rescue During Chemo

A friend of mine who contracted cancer wrote me. Her story proves that there truly is compassion in this world: "A lady in my office has a "red" parking tag right by the front door (red tag spaces at my university are reserved spaces, and cost over a couple of hundred dollars). I have a "blue" tag, which means you end up walking a long way from the parking lot to your office. Chemo left me feeling exhausted. When I returned to work on a limited basis, my friend insisted I take her "red" tag and park near the front door. She took my "blue" tag, and said she didn't mind in the least. This was during a particularly snowy, icy period--I felt SO guilty that she was walking from so far ... Read Full Story >>

Sunday Morning Coffee Smiles

My friend and I were sharing Kindness Ideas with each other and one that  she told me warmed my heart so I wanted to share it.

As a college student she knew, Cindy, would walk to church on Sunday mornings. She'd pass a park on the way and see homeless sleeping on the benches.  She wanted to do something, but didn't know what and she felt afraid also to approach them.  She prayed over it and decided she would stop and get a couple of coffees for them on her way to church next Sunday.

She headed out a little earlier than normal on Sunday and stopped at the coffee shop for 2 coffees. Sure enough there were 2 homeless men sleeping on the benches. She quietly walked over a placed the coffee next to each of them and then hurried off to church. On her way home she saw the 2 of them sitting there chatting and drinking the coffee. She figured that the coffee wasn't hot anymore, but they were happy and that warmed her heart...as it does mine thinking of it.

My Nephew's Birthday Adventure In Paying It Forward

I want to say thanks to all of you for your special notes and ideas, after I sent my request for 'gifting acts of kindness ideas' for my nephew's birthday last month. I was excited to hear from some of you with suggestions. Pancho suggested that I give him my attention -- as the greatest gift one human being can give another -- yes! Nipun helped out by sharing his own story, and got me thinking further about how I could do a kindness tag, Idaho style. I gave that kid some super-duper hugs, not to mention every bit of attention I could muster, and a good dose of kindness stories, to boot. There is a long story with great sidenotes that goes with the birthday adventure story, but the short story is as follows: I gave my nephew twenty bucks for his birthday, with the condition that he use it to do something kind for someone ... Read Full Story >>

Cookies and Smiles at the Office

Wednesday was my day of scheduled kindness this week and I decided to do something at my work.

We are going through a lot of change in the office. Many people are nervous and anxious over all of the changes. I thought this would be a great opportunity to bring a little kindness where it could spread some smiles to some people who need that.

A Lesson in Gratefulness From A Child on the Street

A story from a little while ago... On the way to dinner last week, we spotted a kid on the sidewalk doing his homework by the dim light of the street lamp across the road. He probably had no electricity at home, and this was the only way he could study after dark. Moreover, he was rather emaciated -- he probably eats less in a day than I eat in a meal. It was so touching to see his dedication that I felt a knot in my throat. I immediately thought of the Aurolab engineer who was the first person in his village to attend college -- who studied every night until midnight on the road under the one streetlight and only point of electricity in his village -- whose family took on high-interest loans to fund his education -- and whose monthly salary was less than his loan payments. When we rounded ... Read Full Story >>

Valentine's Day Kindess Inspiration

When I was purchasing Valentine's Day gifts earlier this year, I got to thinking about how I can make the most of the holiday opportunity.  I came up with an idea to gift my department co-workers as well as a few strangers.

My department is pretty small: there's only 4 people including me and with the monotonous daily tasks we do all day everyday we could all use a little pick-me-up in there. So, I decided to get each of my co-workers a little box of Guylain Chocolates (yummy Belgian chocolate) and an old-fashioned Valentine Card (you know, the kind you gave out in elementary school).

With the left over Valentine Cards I'm picked some random women out of the phone book and mailed them the cards along with Smile Cards (got the idea from the Phonebook Tagging article here on HelpOthers). 

What woman doesn't want an extra Valentine on Valentine's day?

A Lost Wallet Returned, Across 3 Continents

It was May in Bangkok, and even though I had arrived from India after 6 months of volunteer work, the heat and humidity was exhausting.  After a long day of temple visiting, I fell asleep on the sky train for about 5 minutes, only to wake up seconds before the door was about to slam shut at my stop.  As I rush out onto the platform, I realize that my wallet is gone! First thought: I'd been pickpocketed while I slept on the train. Second thought: Bravo to the pickpocket! My wallet had been in my front pocket and I was sitting down with my backpack on my lap.  Given the heat and stickiness, even I had trouble getting my wallet out of my pocket, but the alleged thief managed to do so despite the awkwardness and obstacles, without waking me up.  She certainly deserved something for that, and I had no ill ... Read Full Story >>

Three Feet of Snow and a Very Kind Neighbor

It's no secret that we've had some pretty crazy weather in the Maryland area this past winter. We had 15 inches of snow during one month followed by 28 more inches. Whenever it snowed like that, I packed my things up and stayed at my mom's house, both to help her with shoveling and for the ease of getting my car out of the driveway to get to work rather than attempting it from my mountain side driveway. I did about 4 hours of shovelling one day and only managed to dig us out of the house and a small walking path to and around 3 sides of my car.  To make better headway the next day, I set the alarm and got out there preparing to do the necessary 3 or 4 shovelling rounds before being able to relax and watch the Super Bowl. My whole body was in pain from the ... Read Full Story >>

Helping Others Heals Ourselves

College was the best of times and the worst of times for me. I met the best friends of my life, had unimaginable experiences, and traveled to new places, but I also folded under more stress than I ever had to deal with before. As a result of bad grades, bad study skills, and pure burnout, I ended up being asked to take a semester off at the end of the first semester of my senior year. All the friends I had made were going to graduate and all I knew was that I wouldn't be graduating with them. So I ended up going back home to live with my father and stepmother. To their credit, they were very cool about me coming back. I felt their support from the moment I walked in the door and they refused to let me feel like a failure. No matter how much they ... Read Full Story >>

Helping An Old Man To Find Joy Again

This year had been very difficult financially for my family due to budget cuts, layoffs, and unforeseen circumstances and with the holiday season around the corner, I didn’t know how I was going to buy Christmas presents for my children until my very own Santa showed up. One day while window shopping with my 4 month old son, a stranger walked up to me and began a conversation asking the usual baby questions like how old is he, will Santa be coming to see him, was he my only child, etc. After a few minutes of talking, he introduced himself as Ralph, and asked for help with shopping for for his grandkids since he didn't know what to buy. I agreed since I was only window shopping and didn’t have anywhere to be at the time, and because I had children close to the same age that he was looking for, I  figured I’d ... Read Full Story >>

A Moment to Interact En Route to the Ocean

It's a small berautiful moment., but worth the share...

I was walking down to the ocean, taking in the moments, when I noticed an obviously physically challenged man who began to walk down the stairs behind me.  I noticed him and thought how often society marginilses folks like him.

Immediatley the thought inspired a South African greeting "howzit" I said, with a smile.  He seemed not to notice.  I walked with him down the stairs and asked him, "Have you had a swim yet this season?"

"No," he responded, surprising me slightly with his vocal challenge, "I'm still recovering from a car accident."  Turns out the poor man had been hit by a car just less than two months ago and he was a walking miracle, shocking not just me with his recovery, but many doctors too!

How often we miss out on the moments to interact with those that seem different.  His strength to walk those stairs and step by step keep up his recovery will be an ongoing inspiration... AWESOME!!!

Paying It Forward On The Ski Slopes

My husband and I were excited to take a day off from work to ski Winter Park and then continue on to Grand Lake to snowshoe for the rest of our anniversary weekend this past winter.  We arrived at Winter Park with discount coupon in hand, but to my surprise, the clerk pushed it back my way stating that it was not valid on this particular day.  The discount was to buy two tickets for $50 each.  Being very disappointed I asked how much a regular ticket would cost, and she said $94!  Needless to say, I was very unhappy. As I waited for my husband to return, the universe was lining me up for some wonderful kindness.  A mother and her daughter approached me asking if we needed tickets.  They were on a band trip and found out that the daughter could not ski due to an injury.  As a ... Read Full Story >>

How I Like To Use My Smile Cards...

Thank you so much!! I had sent a request for 30 smile cards for all my Christmas acts.  In the request I said that if it's not possible for them to send me these cards I totally understand because after all I do live a long way down in New Zealand.  I didn't hear anything more and just happily accepted that I won't be receiving any smile cards. Last night I arrived home to find a package with about 278 smile cards inside!! This arrived a few weeks after I placed the request...I couldn't believe it!! That was something I sooo wasn't expecting! I was so overwhelmed, thinking is this a mistake? Here is what I use my smile cards for.... - Whenever I send out cards or presents in New Zealand or around the world I always include a smile card inside. I have sent out quite a few cards out to quite a number ... Read Full Story >>

Dreaming of Plastic-Free Days in the Ocean

Here is a little something that I like to do, and I thought I'd share it as my act of today...

I love swimming in the ocean, and when I do, if I see plastic in the water, I remove it.  Then, when I'm done swimming, I pick up as many plastic bottles that I can carry and dump them in the bin.

While this is not random to human beings, it is kind to the precious ocean that I love so much.  I look forward to plastic-free days somewhere in the future...

May this inspire you to be kind to our beloved oceans and to Mother Nature so those plastic-free days that I dream about will become a reality!

Everything Matters

I have just finished reading the book "The shack" by William Paul Young.  It's a lovely book to read at Christmas time.  There is a beautiful paragraph in the book that stuck with me and I would like to share it with you.

"Mack, if anything matters, everything matters. Because you are important, everything you do is important. Every time you forgive, the universe changes; every time you reach out and touch a heart or a life, the world changes; with every kindness and service, seen or unseen, my purposes are accomplished and nothing will ever be the same again." (p. 235)