Stories of Kindness from Around the World

A Street Party That Brings A Community Closer

I live on a road called Megby Close and that really is the operative word - 'close'. Everyone in the street looks out for one another, we pop into each others houses to share a cup of tea, or have a chat or even just to say hello and see if the day is going well. This closeness is rare in Britain today, which is a shame, and I should know, I have lived in several different houses and none of the streets have been like this one. I heard on BBC Radio 2 that there was to be a Great British Street Party and I jumped at the chance to have one on this street. There are 6 houses in the main part of the street and all of us pretty much live in each others shoes. But I decided to post invites to everyone in the nieghbourhood to see if we could spread that ... Read Full Story >>

Volunteering at Day Care During Lunch Hour

I volunteer at a daycare center in Baltimore during my lunch hour.  I work very close to the daycare and only found it because I took a "wrong turn."  Now I can see that there are NO wrong turns.  Everything happens for a reason.  I love children but have been working at a consulting office and working with computers.  I thought the daycare director might not have anything for me when I asked to volunteer, but she was very nice and agreed to let me come in during my lunch hour.   I have been so blessed and learning so much from these little munchkins.  PACT is a daycare for special-needs children, like those that require feeding tubes, oxygen, or those with autism or cerebal palsy, and those that are deaf or blind.  These kids have the most amazing hearts of love!  Just this week I was working in a room that ... Read Full Story >>

Tandem Acts of Kindness in Two Cities

A few weeks ago, I was in a crowded local train in Mumbai. I was sitting in a window seat of the super-crowded ladies' compartment. I was lucky to find a seat as I had got in at the first station. In a few minutes, the seats were all taken, and most people had to stand jam-packed in the aisles. Anyone who has been in Mumbai knows how frustrating a crowded train can be. In the middle of all this, I saw a young girl, about 10 years old, probably from a poor family. It was evident that she was used to the crowd, and the pushing and jostling, because she would silently shift position to be just that little bit more comfortable. I felt a little sad sitting there watching her having to stand. It struck me, that this is the time to practice a random act of kindness. However, I had to overcome some ... Read Full Story >>

A Moving Day Surprise

Pleasant surprises always make me happy.  It’s always nice to learn that someone was thinking of us and when they do something for us when we least expected, it gives us happiness.  When that happens to me, I try to do something for others. A couple of days ago, I was watching a movie with a few friends when a thought came to my mind. One of my friends was moving house the next day and I decided to help him by devoting some of my time to help with the shifting. Then I had another thought, what if he has a lot of stuff and it will be difficult for him to transport it. I shared this with a friend who was also watching a movie. We decided to get a car and load everything in the car and give him a surprise. We were excited and it all happened ... Read Full Story >>

Kindness Even When It's The Challenging Kind

I always try to be kind where I can and it usually comes reasonably easily to me to be kind to strangers or semi-strangers. I’ve discovered that it seems to be harder for me to be kind to the people who are closely related to me. I like spending time with my grandparents, who live only 5 minutes away from me, but I sometimes find it stressful and challenging. At their age (they are over 75 years old) they seem to have accumulated a lot of resentment and negativity although they were not like this before. My grandma seems to say negative things about others at any opportunity and my granddad gets immensely stressed and hyper and highly strung about the simplest of things. Last week I visited them a couple of times, and ended up feeling really stressed myself at the end of each visit although there were some good moments. ... Read Full Story >>

Quiet Acts Of Kindness In Her Hour of Sorrow

I work at a Care Center where most of the people are elderly. About a year and a half ago a 59 year-old lady came to us who had cancer. She had to have her right leg amputated and she didn't have a family to take care of her after the operation. This lady was a quiet lady who mostly stayed to herself. But in the afternoons, when she was feeling well, she would go visit the other residents in the home. She would visit a lady who was blind and read to her. She would go into the room of a young girl with severe cerebral palsy and sing to her. In her quiet gentle way, she would go about the Care Center doing good. She passed away last Wednesday and after her passing, stories are coming forward of her quiet acts of kindness in her own hour of sorrow. We never know what impact ... Read Full Story >>

A Valentine's Day Smile For a Wonderful Mother

One of my co-workers is a young single mother who is one of the sweetest and kindest people I have met.  She only has a part time position and is always struggling to make ends meet but she always makes sure her daughter is well cared for.  She does her best to make sure her daughter has a good Christmas and good birthdays despite always struggling to pay her bills.  In February, I bought a heart shaped bank and put 50 loonies in it. I gave it to her on Valentine’s day.  She was so grateful, she was overflowing with joy and she gave me a huge hug. 

I still to this day well up with tears a little bit when I think of the happiness and joy it brought her.

A Kindness "Chain Reaction" in a Traffic Jam

My 17 year old granddaughter is an accomplished flutist.  She recently gave a farewell recital to her friends and family at her high school in Chicago, which was followed by a homemade buffet supper.  After the recital, she had a 3 hour drive home with her mother and sister.  They decided to load up the car with the left-over food from the recital, which included barbequed sandwiches and cream puffs.  They packed the food on plates which they placed in zip-lock bags. On the drive back, they stopped to give the zip-lock bags to homeless people along the way.  At one junction, there was a traffic jam even though the lights were green.  My granddaughter decided to run through the cars to take a plate to a person on the side walk.  As she ran back, some of the other cars started to honk their horns. The lights had already turned red, so my daughter ... Read Full Story >>

Love Endures All

When one of my colleagues was diagnosed with cancer, he decided to take a leave of absence.  He decided to take leave not only because he was undergoing treatment, but also because his wife was going through treatment for a brain tumor.  Given that they were both in bad shape, he decided to take the leave so that they could enjoy each other's company while they still had the chance. Before he went on his leave, he purposely came to his office after hours to gather his personal belongings - just in case.   At the office, we all felt very bad but didn't know how to keep in touch with him and his family without bothering them.   So here is what I did: I bought cards with envelopes and distributed them to all the people in our group.  Then I sent an email to everyone encouraging my colleagues to write something, anything, for our friend.  I then ... Read Full Story >>

A Birthday Lunch With An Extra Smile

My son and I were out of town for the weekend.  Whilst we were out and about, we found a little cafe and decided to have lunch there.  After we had sat down at our table, I noticed an elderly couple having lunch at a table across the room.  I must have looked over at them a few times because my son asked me if I knew them.  I replied that I didn’t, but that they reminded me of my own grandparents.  When the waitress came over, I asked her if she knew them.  She said she did.  She said it was the elderly man’s birthday today.  I wanted to do something for them so I told the waitress that I wanted to pay for their lunch and gave her some money.  Sometime later, the elderly couple came over to thank us.  They were so excited that someone had bought ... Read Full Story >>

Power Of Acknowledging and Sharing Gratitude

Acknowledgement is a very powerful tool. I never felt the power of it until I ran into a situation where I found its importance. I realized how it feels when someone acknowledges you for the sincere service you are doing. It was last Friday when I volunteered for one of the charities to serve food at their dinning room full of homeless people. It was very tiring as this big hall was full of hundreds of individuals. While serving lunches to those people, I kept on smiling and showing my respect to them sincerely. This was the time when I felt how important the acknowledgement was. I felt magical when people said “thank you” to me and pronounced my name by reading the name tag. This was the time I realized how many people in our life serve us but we never acknowledge them. I felt how special I would have made them ... Read Full Story >>

Paying Forward a Bunch of Flowers To Make An Old Lady's Day

I was in line at the grocery store.  There was a cute little old lady in front of me.  She showed me the birthday card she was buying for a friend.  She was so thrilled with it because it could light up. 

As we moved up in the line, she saw the bouqet of flowers I had put on the counter.  She went on and on about my flowers.  She kept smiling and was so sweet.  She paid for her card and walked out of the store slowly.  I told the register lady I would be right back. 

The buckets of flowers were right by my register line.  I grabbed a bunch and paid for them.  I caught the lady before she was out of the door.  She couldn't believe it.  She was so thankful.  I finished paying and was walking out to my car and the same sweet lady was sitting in her car with her door open talking to another lady friend and she saw me and said - "There is the lady that bought me these lovely flowers.  Thank you again. I am having hip surgery tomorrow so these will cheer me up."  I told her to enjoy them. 

I walked away feeling incredible and even had tears in my eyes. 

Rescued By A Cluster Of Goodness

Yesterday was the Mother of All Bad Days for me, but I was rescued by a cluster of unrelated kind people/angels.  My head's still spinning from the experience. Our house is up for sale and my wife and I agreed to have an open house yesterday.  Before it was to start, I had to take our dog, who's been suffering from some unknown liver problem for over two months, to the vet.  The appointment was timed just right to get back home and help host the open house.  That plan soured in a heartbeat! Our dog had been making some progress with her disease, but I got the first round of bad news for the day--her blood test indicated she was getting worse.  Nearly $2,000 dollars has been spent so far trying all kinds of ways to help get her better.  Now the vet was telling me it would take another $2,000 ... Read Full Story >>

A Simple Person's Simple Ways to Become a Better Human Being

Last night in the train, I was reflecting on how I make a concious effort to improve myself every day and came up with this in my notebook: 1) When I see someone doing a good gesture/behavior or I read a good qoute, then  2) I make a mental picture of that moment then 3) I  appreciate that person by saying or by sending an email then 4) I look for the first opportunity to apply it in my actions then 5) I act on it and feel good. And of course pat myself. Sometimes, I share this whole sequence with a few dear friends. 6) For the past 12 years or so, in my daily prayers I ask GOD to give me a chance to do something good. Recently, as I have started visiting a temple frequently in Delhi, I sit in front of the statue and tell God that I am leaving my bad things there and ... Read Full Story >>

A Personal Touch That Helped My Uneasiness

Times are  hard and the money is getting harder and harder to come by. My husband becoming unemployed again has caused a real strain on everything. We've started even thinking of moving out of state! We had hoped to wait until my youngest got through High School, but are now having some doubts if we can wait that long. So I've been on the web searching areas to move to.

Yesterday I'm sitting outside enjoying the perfect weather and the phone rings...its a realtor from South Carolina. You see, I had to create an account to browse different houses for sale...so she had my home number. 

This realtor was so nice and when she realized I wasn't familiar with the town I was house shopping in, she immediately said she would email me some of her personal photos of the area so I could see how lovely it is.  And she did! 

Just that personal touch from her has made my feeling of uneasiness a little better.

One Last Visit To The Beach, On Her Doorstep

I need to share a powerful and strangely wonderful event in my life that involves death and cancer.  I am certain you are struggling with the fact that  I am using the words wonderful, cancer and death in the same sentence.  I think that after you hear this story you will agree that in this case it is an appropriate combination of words. A dear friend of mine was dying of cancer.  Shortly before she died she shared with me that she was very sad that she would never get to go to the beach again.  She grew up near the ocean and it was a special place for her.  The cancer had made her too weak to travel the 4-5 hours from her home to the ocean.  I shared this with several of her friends and we decided we had to do something about it. On a Saturday afternoon in June, while her family kept her distracted ... Read Full Story >>

What Tree Would You Be?

I was walking through the woods with our 2 dogs that are spaniels along with my daughter and we were talking about trees.  

I said that trees felt like freinds standing there quietly for us and Heather, my daughter, said they were leaning over in the breeze to give us a hug.  She said if she came back to life as a tree she would be a cherry blossom tree so she could drop pretty pink blossom everywhere to make it pretty. I don't know what tree I would like to be but I think I would be a lavender plant  so my little flowers could help people relax, ease their headaches, lift their spirits and be used around the home to make it smell lovely.

What tree would you be?

Learning From My Mother's Compassion

I was talking to my Mom yesterday about the Tibetan cause, when she told me something surprising. She works at a University where there are several students who are Tibetan refugees. Over the years, she has counselled many of them and helped them in many ways.

Recently, one girl lost her father, one of her few living relatives. He lived in a very distant part of the country, and she had no money for train fare to get there and pay her last respects or take part in the funeral rites.

My mother instantly gave this girl the entire sum she was carrying at the time, around Rs 1500, so that she could get to her father's town. Being trained in psychology, my Mom feels that a sense of closure is very important when you lose a loved one, like grieving with other members of your family.

Recently, I keep arguing with my mom and telling her that she needs to be more unselfish and more compassionate. It was humbling to hear her narrate this story yesterday. I have so much to learn from people before picking on them.

I said, for the first time in my life , "I am proud of you, Mom".

A Simple Yet Unforgettable Lesson In Helping Others

It's the middle of the night and I find writing this blog nothing short of imperative. As I've been sitting on the floor in my disheveled room, I began to recall such an important moment in my life. Some might pass it off as "dumb" or "unimportant", but for me, it has held a great magnitude of power over my mind and how I live my life. Something so simple, yet so precious has lingered inside my mind for years now.  It was a very cold winter evening when a friend of mine had attempted suicide and was rushed to Westchester Medical Center where she stayed, unconscious for quite a while. FINALLY she awoke. A friend of mine and I decided to visit her, so we picked up some picturesque flowers and were on our way. We reached the hospital and dashed madly across the freezing parking lot through the hospitals automatic doors. After signing in, up ... Read Full Story >>

A Little Reprieve In A Harsh World

My fiancee and I met just under two years ago, having met in a time of our lives when everything had fallen apart.  We are so grateful that after a year and a half, we now have a home and a meal to come home to every evening, having started with literally the clothes on our back.  We have joined a circle of friends and regularly meet at the local pub. This is where were met M and H, a lovely lady with a dodgy partner.  Having felt the hard times, we bought them a beer and one then led to another when we invited them to stay for three days on the carpet of our lounge. Afterall, they had been sleeping in their car for a week, were in a new city and were trying to find jobs etc - a place we new well.  My children and some friends were horrified.  "You will ... Read Full Story >>