Stories of Kindness from Around the World

Don't Say You Are Not Important

Don't say you are not important,

It simply isn't true,

The fact that you were born is proof,

The universe has a plan for you,

The path may seem unclear right now,

But one day you will see,

That all that came before you and me,

Was truly meant to be,

The book of life is one that you are writing,

That's all you need to know ,

Each day you are alive,

Is meant to be a best seller,

So be proud of who you are,

Your character is important,

In this book you are the star.

A Ride To The Station, When We Were Running Late

A few days ago, I was going to the railway station to drop off my husband for work. We were late that day and he was about to miss his train. Unfortunately, the traffic was terrible as well. While we were driving, we saw a man walking alongside the road in a hurry. We stopped the car and asked him if he was going somewhere and whether we could drop him off on our way. He said he was going to the station and he was about to miss his train. He didn’t have a car. Apparently, the man had recently moved from India, had a small girl and he couldn’t afford the expense of a car. A friend who had been regularly giving him a ride was out of town for a week. He was walking almost half an hour every day because there was no bus stop nearby. He ... Read Full Story >>

An Opportunity Lost, In Just 5 Minutes

It’s been a number of years now, but I still remember it - I suppose I always shall.  I was driving around downtown one afternoon in the winter making a few deliveries.  I was listening to a band, rocking out, cruising around, and minding my own business… I came up to a red light and stopped… waited.  As I looked over to my left, I saw a young guy, about my age at the time, standing there.  He was a little scruffy, pale in the face, and holding a cardboard sign with some writing on it.  Generally, I had always just glanced over these signs as I passed them, flicked over anything written on them, and then moved on… As with most major cities, I’m sure when you’re in the heart of downtown, it’s pretty common to have homeless people on every other corner, holding a cardboard sign with something standard written on ... Read Full Story >>

A New Christmas Tradition

This year for christmas we decided to do something different, and many of our family members have signed on as well. We decided we'll each donate our Christmas shopping (and wrapping!) budgets to a charity or something similar, then we'll all get together at Christmas time, have stockings and yummy treats and dinner and family time, and share what we were able to achieve with the money. We'll ask others to refrain from buying us gifts, donating the money they would have spent as they choose, if they choose. It's a bold experiment for a bunch of consumer-happy U.S. citizens, but we're commited. We sponsor a young girl in the Philippines. Her name is Mary Joy, and she's now 16. She writes often to tell us about her life and family. Recently we got a letter that said she has finished high school and is unable to go on to college as ... Read Full Story >>

Sweets and a Dozen Bananas for an Old Woman

My mom went to the vegetable market today. It was crowded, very hot and quite chaotic.

My mom was standing next to an old women selling vegeatbles. The old woman had difficultly hearing and so people were taking advantage of this to buy vegetables from her at very low prices. She was totally at a loss since she was very old she was not in state to fight back with people.

My mom was appalled by this and said to the people buying vegetables from her "can`t you see this old woman is very confused? She can't hear very well and is not strong enough to be able to fight with you.  You are taking advantage of her.  Don't you have any kindness?"  The people didn't pay attention, they just walked away without saying anything.

My mom felt a lot of compassion for the old woman.  She asked the old woman whether she wanted anything to eat. The old woman refused.  My mom  bought some mittai (Indian sweets) and a dozen bananas for her anyway. The old woman was so happy to receive this. She hugged and kissed my mom many times and she kept on saying "thank you" over and over again.

A Baby's Unconditional Trust and Love

We were the only family with children in the restaurant. I sat Erik in a high chair and noticed everyone was quietly sitting and talking. Suddenly, Erik squealed with glee and said, 'Hi.' He pounded his fat baby hands on the high chair tray. His eyes were crinkled in laughter and his mouth was bared in a toothless grin, as he wriggled and giggled with merriment. I looked around and saw the source of his merriment. It was a man whose pants were baggy with a zipper at half-mast and his toes poked out of would-be shoes. His shirt was dirty and his hair was uncombed and unwashed. His whiskers were too short to be called a beard and his nose was so varicose it looked like a road map.  We were too far from him to smell, but I was sure he smelled. His hands waved and flapped on loose ... Read Full Story >>

Fourth in Line at the Grocery Store

I went grocery shopping today. Isn't it always the way that when it's time to pay all of a sudden the lines are long?  I saw one that wasn't too long and quickly jumped into it.  I started loading up my things onto the belt. I had a ton of groceries. As I was loading, I happened to look behind me and saw an elderly couple with a few toys. I told them that they could go ahead of me.  They couldn't thank me enough because they were on their way to their great grandchild's birthday party.  As I continued to unload my groceries onto the belt I heard someone ask, "Miss, would you mind if I went ahead of you also?" I took a deep breath and said "Sure, you can go ahead of me".  I smiled and thought to myself "if he asked he must have to be getting home ... Read Full Story >>

Two Helping Hands When I Really Needed One

Back in 1999, I bought a cheap beaten up car for $200 so that I could drive up to Alberta Canada to attend Art School. The car  was in pretty bad shape.  The gas gage was broken, it didn't have a tape player, and for some reason it wouldn't drive over 50 miles per hour. On my way to Art School, I stopped at a gas station somewhere on the Alaskan Highway to buy some gas.  When I stopped there I found out that my car needed a small repair - the back passenger wheel was rubbing on the car and they had to weld part of it off so that I didn't wear my tire down or blow it.  I had spent the last of my cash on getting my car fixed.  So when, 2 miles outside of Fort St. John, I ran out of gas - my only thought was... “Oh Lord ... Read Full Story >>

A Valuable Lesson Served at a Soup Kitchen

Every year while I was in high school we organized a class retreat. It always involved some sort of service component – usually going to an elementary school or helping out at a nursing home. The class would vote on the type of project we wanted to do, and then our Campus Ministry Coordinator would organize the project, transportation, dates, and specific location. For our senior year, our class voted to volunteer at a soup kitchen so our CM Coordinator, Mrs. Krupitzer, set up a date for us to go to Gleaners Food Bank. We arrived on a Saturday morning, ready to prepare food and serve meals, wipe down tables, and clean dirty dishes. When we got off the bus, the food bank organizer took us on a tour of the facility. Then he turned around and said, “okay it’s time for lunch everybody!” Unbeknownst to us we would be eating ... Read Full Story >>

Turning Panic Into Gratitude

I was stopping at a Subway restaurant near my house for some dinner and a confused-looking Asian woman wandered in, asking for directions.  

"I'm lost," she said, shaking. The woman behind the counter was older, and mind you we live in the South, meaning she had a very thick, heavy accent that the woman asking for directions could hardly understand.

The woman was nearing panic, when I turned to her and said, "North Meridian Road? I'm headed that way, actually. You can just follow me." I was actually going the opposite direction, but I had time to kill.

The woman was overcome with relief. She thanked me, and I took her to her destination.

That made my day.

Cupcakes, Smiles and the Spirit of Baraka

It was 8.30 am on Sunday morning. I woke up exhausted from a very hectic weekend, but had a smile on my face at the thought of our first London Smile Card Activity!  The weather was brilliant, it was going to be a fantastic day! I grabbed my batch of cupcakes which I had made the day before...this was my first attempt at baking, and my husband warned me that taking on this feat of making 50 cupcakes for a public audience was overly ambitious. I bought a box of pre-made cupcake mix in trepidation, but decided the day before that I wasn't going to use it. I was going to do it from scratch, and do it with a heart full of love because that was the only way. After burning the first 3 batches, I started getting the hang of it...process of trial and error seemed to be ... Read Full Story >>

Having Faith in the Power of Doing Good

Two of my friends and I were coming back from a youth meeting when a woman with three children, who were looking unclean and unkept started speaking to us.  She said she and her kids needed money to eat, as they had not eaten since morning and it was already evening.  I had three hundred naira with me and I wanted to use it to buy credit to recharge my phone.  I was tempted to ignore her and tell her I had no money to spare -- even my two friends told me that we should go and I should not give her anything, that she is a fake, pretentious fellow.  But, I decided not to listen to my friends and gave her all the money that I was planning to use to recharge my phone without any hopes of getting more money to top-up my phone for a few days.  I was so shocked when I saw the woman burst ... Read Full Story >>

"Family Dinners" With Alaska Street Rats

Last summer a very good friend of mine introduced me to a group of kids, who live in the downtown area. Many couch-hop with friends, some stay in the local teen shelter and some sleep in tents, sheds and sometimes in a park with just a coat. These kids are brave, but they are young. Some come from families that were hard, others just didn't know how to cope. My name is Mama Jassz and my best friend is Mama Darque (dark). At least once a week, we get these kids together and buy lots of food from donations (usually from our own pockets) and have a "family dinner" together.  We strive to make sure every child there gets a little something and we even save some crackers for the stragglers.  These kids (ages 15 - 30) don't really have any family. Most are runaways, or were kicked out, some were left by choice or cruel ... Read Full Story >>

A Chain of Unexpected Acts of Kindness

When I was twenty-two years old, my eight year old son and I moved to Pennsylvania so that I could attend graduate school.  I had a graduate assistantship but we were still incredibly poor.  During the holiday season, our elderly neighbor gave my son $20 with the suggestion that he take me to dinner.  He was so very proud that he could do that!  She had always been a pretty crotchety neighbor so I was particularly surprised by her kindness and thoughtfulness.  We went to a small restaurant nearby, and he proceeded to charm everyone with his manners.  Previously, before we were so poor, we'd practiced restaurant protocol at an IHOP so he knew exactly what to do. When he asked for the bill at the end of meal, the waitress told us that another customer had paid for our meal.  The customer had already left, so there was no way to know who ... Read Full Story >>

My 29 Days of Giving Journey

I found a site in the internet about a "29 Days of Giving Challenge" which I decided to do.  The idea is the same as random acts of kindness, except that what you give can be anonymous or not. I’ve been doing it for a while and it’s quite interesting because when you get to the end of the day, you think to yourself, “I gave this or I gave that today”.   Sometimes it’s easier and sometimes it’s more difficult.  I tend to try to give something significant. I don't mean significant in terms of monetary value but more in terms of making a difference to someone.   One of my gifts this weekend was the gift of patience.  My brother-in-law brought his two little ones aged 2 and 4 to spend the weekend with us.  As you can imagine my home was no longer mine - it was theirs. My home was turned ... Read Full Story >>

Pickpockets Put Back a Little Cash

August 19, 2009 -- LONDON (Reuters) - Visitors to London always have to be on the look out for pickpockets, but now there's another, more positive phenomenon on the loose -- putpockets. Aware that people are suffering in the economic crisis, 20 former pickpockets have turned over a new leaf and are now trawling London's tourist sites slipping money back into unsuspecting pockets. Anything from 5 pounds ($8) to 20 pound notes is being surreptitiously deposited in unguarded pockets or open handbags in Trafalgar Square, Covent Garden and other busy spots. The initiative, which runs until the end of August in London before being rolled out countrywide, is being funded by a broadbrand provider, which says it wants to brighten up people's lives in unusual ways. "It feels good to give something back for a change -- and Britons certainly need it in the current economic climate," said Chris Fitch, a former pickpocket who ... Read Full Story >>

Another Day When I Didn't Have An Umbrella

I'm not exactly the most prepared person.  I'm always misplacing things - pencils, pens, my phone, sometimes even my purse.  I usually never remember to carry an umbrella - I normally just have to walk (or run if I’m in a hurry) in the rain.  I was walking to class one day when suddenly a summer rainstorm started.  Somehow, on this occasion I actually happened to have an umbrella!  And this one was my favorite color too - hot pink!  So I smiled as I walked on in the sloshing rain, enjoying myself in my dry haven, thinking happily that “I've got it all together today”.  That's when I saw her. She was walking near the admission office, she had a bag slung over her shoulder and some papers in her hand.  But, it's not any of that stuff that caught my eye - it was the beautiful baby girl she was holding ... Read Full Story >>

A Little Story, A Big Thank You

Let me tell you a little story...

A Helping Hand on Move-in Day

I was staying with a friend of mine recently because my parents where out of town.  On one of the days, my friend and I went out on an activity day, which was lots of fun and I had the chance to meet a bunch of new people. I was talking with a few guys, and during the course of the conversation, it came up that they where from a town that I was going to move to in just one week. One of the guys was very interested in when my family and I where moving and asked if we where going to have any help moving in. He insisted on getting my information so he could help out.  I thought that was quite funny but didn’t really give it much thought.   Well, sure enough, he called me the day we were moving in, and when my family arrived, there was a big group of people outside our new house.  These people didn’t even know us and ... Read Full Story >>

Lesson Learned...the Hard Way

A long while back, I used to work as a bus and van driver for an organization that provided services to the elderly in our county. I transported senior citizens to and from the senior center on the bus and also took them on field trips to various places. One old lady, Mrs Garripy, was very slow. She only walked a few steps at a time before she needed to stop, sit and rest. It was such an effort for her to get around that I often thought to myself, "Oh Mrs Garripy, if only you would just exercise a bit more then you would be able to move around more easily and you wouldn’t be so tired or out of breath." Years later, my thoughts came back to haunt me.... I had undergone serious surgery which nearly took my life. I spent the next year recovering in bed.  I was so ... Read Full Story >>