Stories of Kindness from Around the World

A Little Girl With A Big Heart

I heard a great story this morning about a young girl with a very big heart. A friend was telling me a story about her customer's daughter.   The daughter goes to an expensive private school where she has a friend, who is on a full scholarship at this school.  This friend has very limited means and her mother is an immigrant from China and her father is an alcholic.  Although the girl's mother works very hard, they can barely make ends meet.  This girl is very bright and gifted at music and that's how she got the scholarship from this school.  The stipend also includes an allowance for things like lunch, school uniform and music lessons.    The daughter became friends with this girl and would secretly talk to her at lunch (secretly, in order to avoid the other kids teasing her).  On her birthday last month, she invited her new friend to her birthday ... Read Full Story >>

Unconditional Love

Unexpectedly Helping a Neighbor to Pile Wood

Up here in Thunder Bay, Canada a lot of us heat our houses with wood. I have just finished a month of hard hard work of getting all of my wood cut, bucked, split and piled.

The owner of the country store up the road recently lost his leg, but just two days after getting back from the hospital he was cutting his lawn. I noticed a big pile of wood that needs to be cut and piled last night. Although he's a tough man, tomorrow I have arranged for a few of us to show up unexpected and unasked to tackle the wood for him and get it piled!  The last thing I want to do is handle more wood...but then I think how lucky I am that I can.

Roses for a Grieving Daughter

Last Friday I used my first smile card. I was on my way to visit a social worker who runs an NGO to help her with her website. As she was suffering from flu, I thought some flowers and a smile card would surely cheer her up. So, I picked some roses on my way. On my arrival at her place,  I offered the flowers and a smile card.  She was filled with emotions. She asked me whether there was a reason why I brought these flowers for her or it was just a coincidence. Coincidence?I felt that this act must have touched her deeply. She just lost her mum a few days back, she told me, and it was just what she needed at that moment. We never know at what moment how our act of kindness could ... Read Full Story >>

Rewarding One Good Deed With Another

We were having a mini heat wave yesterday and I was in the supermarket, stocking up on juice and ice-cream.  Now, I'm not much of a fan of the hot weather and I was enjoying the fact that it was cooler inside than outside, but the lady behind the checkout was suffering. I asked if she was looking forward to getting out in the sun after her shift was finished and she replied that she might not last that long. She was melting! She explained that she shouldn't have been working that day, but she had agreed to cover someone else's shift. Now she wished she hadn't. She felt like she might die! I paid for the shopping and headed for the exit. Half way there I remembered something I had wanted to get for Julie, so I went back in. On the way to where I wanted to go, I passed a rack of ... Read Full Story >>

Look Inside Yourself To Heal Others

Two years ago, I heard about a therapist in Hawaii who cured a complete ward of criminally insane patients--without ever seeing any of them. The psychologist would study an inmate's chart and then look within himself to see how he created that person's illness. As he improved himself, the patient improved. "When I first heard this story, I thought it was an urban legend. How could anyone heal anyone else by healing himself? How could even the best self-improvement master cure the criminally insane? It didn't make any sense. It wasn't logical, so I dismissed the story. "However, I heard it again a year later. I heard that the therapist had used a Hawaiian healing process called ho 'oponopono. I had never heard of it, yet I couldn't let it leave my mind. If the story was at all true, I had to know more. I had always understood "total responsibility" to mean that I am responsible ... Read Full Story >>

Hot Pizza Brings a Look to Last Forever

Not too long ago I made a trip to the grocery store.  It was in the evening and past dark.  As I entered the door I noticed a man off to the side with a small cardboard sign that read something to the effect:   "needing change for a hot meal."  

I also noticed several people passing him by with little more than a glance. He looked to be a traveller and seemed to be very humbled at having to ask of others. I too walked on by, but with a seed of an idea planted in my mind. I went to the far back of the grocery store where they offer the only thing I could think of that would be hot. I bought him a couple slices of pizza and immediately went back outside to offer it to him.  I told him that it wasn't much but it was the only thing they had that was hot. I smiled gently and turned to walk away and as I did he smiled back with a deep appreciation and let out a very soft "thank you." That look was worth 10 times more to me than what I had been able to offer him, and it was a look I won't forget.

Kindness Knocks on the Front Door

Two years ago an African man from Malawi, Elias, arrived at my sister’s home in the rough, bush country of South Africa with nothing but the shirt on his back. He was hoping to come to South Africa to find employment in order to support his family in Malawi. Little did he realize my sister at that time was struggling to keep her body and soul together. Nevertheless, Elias was given permission to stay on the property with the understanding that she was unable to help him financially and he would have to find “piece work” employment to support himself. As unemployment is rife, Elias was unable to find work immediately, so my sister taught him how to grow organic vegetables, sew and bake. Elias is keen to learn whatever he can to take the knowledge back to Malawi with him once he goes home. Elias finally found employment but my sister hit ... Read Full Story >>

Getting Through A Difficult Christmas By Helping Others

The Christmas of 2008 was going to be a bleak one for me and my wife and our 4 children. Business was bad and I didn't know how we were going to get through it.

I had just read an article in our local newspaper about a gentleman who would stand in the city and give out $100 notes to unsuspecting shoppers... dressed as Santa. I thought that was a great idea, only thing was I didn't have a wad of $100 bills to hand out.

So, what I decided to do was call up a local women's refuge centre and ask them if they had anyone more unfortunate than me and my family, who would like some Christmas presents to make their holiday time a little brighter. I went down to the toy store and proceeded to load up my trolley with toys and racing cars and dolls for deserving boys and girls. Once I had filled up with plenty of toys I called my wife and kids and we delivered the toys to the womens refuge centre.

It was a great way to do something nice for others less fortunate than ourselves and was great to have involved the kids.

P.S. I still want to dress up as Santa and give away $100 notes on the street to unsuspecting shoppers... :)

Changing the World One Shopping Trip at a Time

I was in the grocery store one day a while back and I went down an aisle to grab some spaghetti sauce.  There were three other shoppers in the same aisle: a woman and her husband and another woman who was in a motorized cart.  The woman in the motorized cart was trying to keep out of the way of the woman and the man, and she was also looking at the shelves and trying to grab something.  I paused as the man and woman took a look at the handicapped woman and walked on.  I smiled at the handicapped woman and was about to walk back the way I came, when she groaned, "Geez nevermind," and started to back-up to get out of the aisle.  Hearing her frustrated comment I turned back and asked her if she needed help.  She told me yes and asked me if I could please grab the jar of ... Read Full Story >>

A Bus Ride That Touched My Heart

Last night after work, I took the bus home.  Now this bus ride was different then usual. The difference was that people seemed to be helping others at every chance they could!  The bus was filled with people as usual and we took the usual route home.  There is a blind lady who always gets on the same bus as me. We were just about to leave the bus station when a lady on the bus suddenly noticed that the blind lady wasn't on the bus that day and told the driver.  When we looked out the window, we saw her sitting over in the corner all by herself. One lady passenger jumped off the bus and ran to help and guide this blind lady onto the bus.  As we were driving along each stop and picking up passengers, a girl in her 20's got on at one stop and asked the bus driver how much the bus ride ... Read Full Story >>

A Motorcycle Man's Karmic Kindness

In my country, motorcycles are commonly used to transport people to work, church and businesses.  Often, really small motorcycles carry two to three people and on top of this our roads are pretty bad and traffic is always unbearable. There is a young man who picked up a lady everyday from the same bus stop and took her to the office where she worked. One particular day, the lady did not have enough money to pay for the motorcycle man to take her to work, and so thought she would end up walking on the road and risking questioning from her boss for arriving late. But this young motorcycle man said he would willingly take her anyways and asked her to climb onto the bike.  She hasitated at first, but decided to take him up on his offer.  He took her all the way to her office, which should have cost her N500, but he refused to collect any money from her that ... Read Full Story >>

Viewing Life From A Child's Perspective

My 4 ½ yrs old daughter is very fond of making drawings and colorings. One day she patiently drew plenty of different sizes of fish to fill up a while piece of paper and she creatively used many different colors on the fish. On seeing this and to encourage her furthermore, my mother told her:” Wow! That’s really nice and colorful. You have drawn so many fish.” She turned around and replied: “These are not fish. It’s the ocean.” Children have always had a different point of view of things. Sometimes, I wish we could all view things from a child’s perspective. For example if we are asked to draw a picture of the world, how many of us would think to represent it by putting together people from different countries with different languages, cultures and traditions? ... Read Full Story >>

Pay-It-Forward, A Labour of Love

Once a year my Great Aunt Glenna (both in relation and in just plain greatness) gets all the ladies in the family together for a weekend at a cabin set in the woods.  There are no distractions like television or radio.  It is a time to commune with nature and to draw close to one another.  We always have the MOST wonderful time! At the most recent of these get-togethers, I decided it would be a lot of fun to get a smile card going.  I envisioned it would be passed from lady to lady with one kind act after another the whole weekend.  The first morning I put a bag of mini M&M's in my Great Aunt Dorris' shoe related to a precious story she told about her grandson.  It started a string of questions aimed at uncovering the doer of the ANONYMOUS act of kindness.  I was suspect number one but I would never admit to it.  It did ... Read Full Story >>

A Little Package For Helpers In The Community

Recently, Aurelia posted a story on HelpOthers that was about Telephone Book Smiles. I was totally inspired by this! Thanks so much Aurelia for sharing.  I decided to do something similar.  I looked for good news stories in the local newspaper of people helping others in the community. Last weekend, I made lots of handmade Smile Card poems on lovely coloured card (Smiling is contagious you catch it like the flu.....).  I made little packages and placed the poem, smile card and some chocolates inside to send to these wonderful people who are helping others in their community. I so wanted to make these people's day, but in an anonymous way. I wanted to bring a smile to their faces. One story in the newspaper was about an 84 year-old woman still volunteering and helping others in the local community. She had been helping in the community for many years. I was so amazed by this and how someone ... Read Full Story >>

Two Wolves

Two Wolves - A Cherokee Parable An old Cherokee chief was teaching his grandson about life...   "A fight is going on inside me," he said to the boy. "It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves."   "One is evil - he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, self-doubt, and ego."   "The other is good - he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith."   "This same fight is going on inside you - and inside every other person, too."   The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, "Which wolf will win?"   The old chief simply replied, "Whichever one you feed."     ... Read Full Story >>

An Opportunity to Help Two Stray Dogs

I have a Lhasa Apso dog. Two days ago I bought some new pet food for it which it didn't like! I was angry as the food had been quite expensive. 

In the evening, when I was taking my dog for a walk, I noticed two stray dogs sitting near our gate. When I got back, I took the new pet food out and gave it to them. And believe me - those two dogs really enjoyed the same food.  They lapped it up.  I felt happy and I have decided that I will get some food for those dogs regularly.

After all those dogs are God's creatures and I must take care of them too.

Turning Kindness Into A Habit

Last winter I was going through a rough patch in my life.  I had a bunch of terrible things going on around me. I felt very distant and became quite selfish. I hated the way I was feeling and one day I woke up and told myself, “You are above this, stop feeling sorry for yourself.”   Then, I tried out an experiment, and it has DEFINITELY changed me for the better. Every day I would do at least one act of kindness - It could be anything… Bringing the trash down to the trash compactor for my 80 year old neighbor, Going into the store to buy something for myself (like a bit of makeup) and coming out with something for someone else (like candy for my boyfriend) Sitting down with my sister or a friend and just simply listening. And I can ... Read Full Story >>

Taking The Time To Write a Letter

I wanted to do something similar to what I've read on this site, but nothing I read was exactly what I had in mind. I finally decided to write letters.

I picked a home for the elderly and a near-by cancer center. The first letter I wrote was a thank-you note along with a picture I had taken of a cheery summer flower. It was more of a "thank you" for being here, and staying strong rather than a "thank you" for a tangeble gift. I did a similar thing for the cancer center and left a note with each card asking  for it to be delivered to the person who deserved it the most.

Hopefully something as little as that can touch someone else.

A Treasured Gift For A Young Couple

I met a really nice young couple about a year ago through mutual friends on a social networking site.  They have just adopted a baby girl.  This is a beautiful gift to the world on its own, but what makes it even more special is how many hoops they jumped through and how much time and money they spent to get to that stage. I was going through some boxes from my mother’s house (she passed away at Christmas time in 2007) and I found some beautiful vintage baby dresses. So I thought, wouldn’t it be a wonderful thing if I sent some of this lovely vintage clothing to the couple for their adopted baby?  I knew they would love it.  This was truly a gift from the heart; I had planned on saving those for my daughter if I had one someday.  But, given that my husband died before we had any children, ... Read Full Story >>