Stories of Kindness from Around the World

A Child, Just Naturally, Puts Things Right

   I had my grandson for the day and I had to run to the store to pick up some things. I brought him along with me. He didn't complain but I knew he couldn't wait to get home to play.    At the store he asked if he could go by himself  and pick out something to drink. I said yes since I would be able to see him from where I was. I watched him until it was my turn in line.  Then somewhere in the background I heard a loud noise, looked toward my grandson saw that he was ok and finished up my business.     As I went back over to my grandson I found him busy on the floor putting back together a battery display that was tipped over. The batteries  were everywhere. He told me: "I'll fix it Grandma so nobody will trip."    How proud I was of ... Read Full Story >>

15 Ways to Love Your Neighbor

I recently came across 15 Ways to Love Your Neighbor, by Joanne Brokaw.  Wonderful ideas! Loving your neighbor doesn't require a huge bank account or selling your possessions and moving to the desert (unless, of course, God is calling you to do that). Here are practical ways you can love your neighbors: 1. Write a note. In these days of electronic communication, receiving a handwritten note is a rare treat. Today, ask God to bring to mind someone who could use a little encouragement. Then take a few minutes to jot a quick note or postcard and drop it in the mail, just letting that person know you're thinking about them. 2. Recycle. If we love God, then we love his creation, and taking care of the earth is one way you can be a good neighbor. You don't have to hug a tree or buy a hybrid, but you should follow your ... Read Full Story >>

Sharing Nature's Trails

Yesterday my husband and I went for a long walk on the trails through our local park and took our doggies along.  We pulled into the parking lot and parked the car. Our little doggies were all excited to hit the trails and so were we. It was a cool day and we had to hike up the hillside to get to the woods with pathways we enjoy. The gentle breeze and the smell of the earth as we approached the path made it even more inviting.  We weren't walking along on the path more than two minutes and here comes the high school cross country track team!  We thought, "There goes our peaceful walk." :(   But little did we know that we'd still have a pleasant walk.  Our doggies learned to stop and watch the kids run by. They'd smile and wave and tell us how cute our dogs were.   Every once in  a while ... Read Full Story >>

Simplicity is Living

To wake up in the morning, knowing you're still alive, To know you have a choice each day, starting afresh, To find joy in everyday, acknowledging simple pleasures, To live in the present moment, engaging your awareness, To count the blessings in life, believing abundance abounds, To enjoy the work you do, following your passion, To make a little difference, adding to the universe, To be what you are, listening to your inner being, To give away love, rejoicing in the chance to give, To receive love with gratitude, feeling good about it, To smile at strangers, seeing how infectious it can be, To speak words of kindness, spreading a little warmth, To understand with compassion, opening up your mind, To play with children, nurturing your inner child, To appreciate the nature, soaking up all the beauty, To feel the warmth of the sun, glowing upon your skin, To listen to the falling rain, pattering on the grounds To taste the ... Read Full Story >>

Smile Cards and the Gentle Man

False happiness renders men stern and proud, and that happiness is never communicated. True happiness renders them kind and sensible, and that happiness is always shared. - Charles de Montesquieu   I volunteered to fulfill Smile Card orders & my first shipment of “to-be” mailed Smiled Cards arrived on Monday. I was very excited & immediately inspected all the contents. My darling husband quietly watched me, not wanting to interrupt my moment, but I could tell he was curious. I told him I would be helping to spread kindness by mailing Smile Cards to members. “That’s great!” he said. Probably thinking, “There she goes again with another one of her causes.”   I showed him all the contents I was to mail, and he mentioned how it was an awful lot to send. “Did HelpOthers provide you with stamps?” he asked. I held my breath, worried that he would be upset when he found ... Read Full Story >>

Kindness Runners

I used to live next door to a wonderful old couple, Mr Mitchell and Mrs Mitchell.  They used to love gardening and had planted a beautiful garden.  Sadly, Mrs Mitchell died and Mr Mitchell's health began to deteriorate and he wasn't able to garden much anymore. Over the years their carefully tended garden became a jungle. One day, Mr Mitchell's health took a sudden downturn and he was taken into hospital.  I wanted to do something for him so I decided to tend his garden.   I wanted to get it nice again for him so that when he came back home he would have somewhere to sit in the sun while he was recuperating.  So I went into the garden armed with saws, a spade and clippers.  Over time my gardening trips became a regular thing and Mr Mitchell's garden begun to take shape again. Mr Mitchell never came back home.  He ... Read Full Story >>

What If Everyone Thought About Others Once A Day?

I have had the most amazing two days. Browsing through some threads on my favorite forum, I came across this thread where a guy was asked by his gardener to build a PC for him and his kids. He brought him an old box with some hardware in it but it was not working at all. The guy started looking at it and found out the specs and what he needed to do to fix it. He started a thread explaining the situation and asked if somebody had some cheap memory that he could buy (at his own cost) to fix this person's computer.  Not only did he get the memory for free, but a number of people offered him 2nd hand PC hardware that they were not using for no cost. It looks like he would have been able to build 2 PC's because of all the 'donations' this started as ... Read Full Story >>

You Reap What You Sow

The man slowly looked up. This was a woman clearly accustomed to the finer things of life. Her coat was new. She looked like she had never missed a meal in her life. His first thought was that she wanted to make fun of him, like so many others had done before. "Leave me alone," he growled... To his amazement, the woman continued standing. She was smiling -- her even white teeth displayed in dazzling rows. "Are you hungry?" she asked. "No," he answered sarcastically. "I've just come from dining with the president.. Now go away." The woman's smile became even broader. Suddenly the man felt a gentle hand under his arm. "What are you doing, lady?" the man asked angrily. "I said to leave me alone. Just then a policeman came up. "Is there any problem, ma'am?" he asked.. "No problem here, officer," the woman answered. "I'm just trying to get this man to his feet. ... Read Full Story >>

Who Packed Your Parachute?

Charles Plumb, a US Naval Academy graduate, was a jet pilot in Vietnam. After 75 combat missions, his plane was destroyed by a surface-to-air missile. Plumb ejected and parachuted into enemy hands. He was captured and spent 6 years in a communist prison. He survived the ordeal and now lectures on lessons learned from that experience. One day, when Plumb and his wife were sitting in a restaurant, a man at another table came up and said, "You're Plumb! You flew jet fighters in Vietnam from the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk. You were shot down!" "How in the world did you know that?" asked Plumb. "I packed your parachute," the man replied. Plumb gasped in surprise and gratitude. The man grabbed his hand and said, "I guess it worked!" Plumb assured him, "It sure did. If your chute hadn't worked, I wouldn't be here today." Plumb couldn't sleep that night, thinking about that man. Plumb kept ... Read Full Story >>

A Little Boy's Selfless Love

Many years ago, when I worked as a volunteer at a hospital, I got to know a lovely little girl named Liz who was suffering from a rare life threatening disease. Her only chance of recovery appeared to be a blood transfusion from her 5-year-old brother, who had somehow survived the same disease and had developed the antibodies needed to combat the illness.

The doctor explained the situation to her little brother, and asked the little boy if he would be willing to give his blood to his sister. I saw him hesitate for only a moment before taking a deep breath and saying, "Yes, I'll do it if it will save her."

As the transfusion progressed, he lay in bed next to his sister and smiled, as we all did, seeing the color returning to her cheeks. Then his face grew pale and his smile faded. He looked up at the doctor and asked with a trembling voice, "Will I start to die right away?".

Being young, the little boy had misunderstood the doctor; he thought he was going to have to give his sister all of his blood in order to save her.

Photos Lead to Birthday Sharing

    Most holidays my family go on, my brother and I have a competition to see how many pictures we can take for other people.

   This day we were at a vista point  and saw a couple. My brother raced up to them and offered to take a picture for them.  After taking the picture thay insisted on us jumping in a picture with his wife. So we got our picture taken with her.

   A little time later we saw the couple again, this time we were with our family. I ran up and offered to take their picture. They looked at us and saw our family.  The husband said, " Would you like to share a cake and some drink with my wife and I?" We said "Yes," and they came back with a huge birthday cake.

   It turned out they were from Bangladesh and the woman could speak limited English and had no family with whom  to share her birthday.

   It turned out one small act of kidness returned another act.

The Echo Of Life

The Echo of Life A son and his father were walking on the mountains. Suddenly, the son falls, hurts himself and screams, "AAAhhhhhhhhhhh!!!" To his surprise, he hears the voice repeating, somewhere in the mountain: "AAAhhhhhhhhhhh!!!" Curious, he yells, "Who are you?" He receives the answer, "Who are you?" Angered at the response, he screams, "Coward!" He receives the answer, "Coward!" He looks to his father and asks, "What's going on?" The father smiles and says, "My son, pay attention." And then he screams to the mountain, "I admire you!" The voice answers, "I admire you!" Again the father screams, "You are a champion!" The voice answers, "You are a champion!" The boy is surprised, but does not understand. Then the father explains: "People call this ECHO, but really this is LIFE. It gives you back everything you say or do. Our life is simply a reflection of our actions. If you want more love in the world, create more love in your heart. If ... Read Full Story >>

Awakening to Kindness

It was a long, hard day for me. I was going back home from work by bus. The stress from work weighed heavily on my mind.

A girl was sitting next to me, who I didn't know. She asked me some questions casually and we had a short conversation. She was just a stranger/passer-by I thought to myself and  didn't take much interest.

After a while, she suddenly handed me some chocolates and said that it was her birthday. I instantly responded with a smile and my heart felt free of the stress that I had been carrying. In a single moment I felt the heaviness of the day transform into lightness of a feather.

Her simple act gave me joy even I though I don't particularly enjoy sweets as much. I wished her a long life.

I realized that even small acts can make a person feel happy. I can't remember her face but recalling the incident makes me happy.

A Whisper For You To Hear

Deep within my heart, I know it's often painful when we grow , into another chapter of this life filled with anger and with strife, the passage should be smooth and clear the way is possible and very near so sit down beside me while I speak very close now my voice is weak let me whisper the secret of living while I 'm still in the mood for giving the answer that you desperately need in this world of poverty and greed in all the time i've spent this time the best were the ones where i  could rhyme the balance of words gave my  soul a lift perked up my senses when I needed a shift out of my self-created misery and pain, cleaned out the chakras and kept me sane the answer you see is crystal clear find one thing that you hold dear and in that one thing that gives you pleasure you'll find an everlasting treasure so sit still my friend and close your eyes block ... Read Full Story >>

A Story of True Love and Acceptance

This is what True Love is all about: It was a busy morning, approximately 8:30 a.m., when an elderly gentleman in his 80's arrived to have stitches removed from his thumb. He stated that he was in a hurry as he had an appointment at 9:00 am.    I took his vital signs and had him take a seat, knowing it would be over an hour before someone would to able to see him. I saw him look at his watch and decided, since I was not busy with another patient, I would evaluate his wound.     On exam, it was well healed, so I talked to one of the doctors, got the needed supplies to remove his sutures and redress his wound.   While taking care of his wound, we began to engage in conversation.  I asked him if he had another doctor's appointment this morning, as he was in such a hurry. The ... Read Full Story >>

Linda's Kindness

My friend Linda came to stay for a few days.  I asked her how she was and she said she felt a little tired.

Why?  Well, she had taken a month off of work, unpaid, so she could help at a playgroup for autistic children who were under staffed.

That is an act of kindness!

You Give And Then...You Let Go

I have always had a heart for strays.When my late mother was in the hospital in the 1950s I was a very young child and I collected, took care of animals. The first animals I got home was a pigeon.I found it while walking to school.It was on the curb and his wing was broken.I hid it in the woods and when I went home,it was still there and brough it home.My father made a box for it and i fed it bread and water everyday and I kind of raised him. The next animal I found was a black dog.This black dog was frail and she was about to have puppies.My father found the dog tied outside of the house and decided to take it in.The dog was just so happy and you could tell that this dog wasnt treated nice.We kept him in a box in the cellar.The dog had ... Read Full Story >>

What's In The Bag?

Sometimes I am witness to acts of selfless generosity that are nearly invisible and done with no thought that anyone would see them other than the person to whom the act is directed. Here's an example.It comes from our little artist breakfast group that we host every week. Taya, who is a remarkable artist, is moving to New Mexico. She's 75 and has decided she wants to start a new chapter in her life. So she has just completed the purchase of a property in a tiny community in New Mexico where she knows no one. She is leaving Oakland where she has lived for perhaps 25 or 30 years and, of course, leaving her circle of friends. This in itself is astonishing. One of our group, Edythe, had mentioned [only mentioned] how she is fond of the beauty of coins, not for their monetary value, but just for their beauty. This morning ... Read Full Story >>

A Tale of a Hero and His Nine Little Ducklings

Something really amazing happened in downtown Spokane, Washington this week, so  I decided to share the joy with you.    My good friend Betty has a brother named, Joel, who is a loan officer at Sterling Bank in Washington state. He works downtown in a second story office building, overlooking the busy street known as Riverside Avenue. Several weeks ago, he watched a mother duck choose the cement awning outside his window as the uncanny place to build a nest above the sidewalk.    The mallard laid nine eggs in a nest in the corner of the planter that is perched over 10 feet in the air. She dutifully kept the eggs warm for weeks and on a sunny Mondary afternoon all of her nine ducklings hatched.     Joel worried all night as to how the momma duck was going to get those nine babies safely off their perch in a busy, downtown, urban environment so they ... Read Full Story >>

Let's Travel to Life

 As you travel through life there are always those times When decisions just have to be made, When the choices are hard, and solutions seem scarce, And the rain seems to soak your parade. There are some situations where all you can do Is simply let go and move on, Gather your courage and choose a direction That carries you toward a new dawn. So pack up your troubles and take a step forward - The process of change can be tough, But think about all the excitement ahead There might be adventures you never imagined. Just waiting around the next bend, And wishes and dreams just about to come true In ways you can't yet comprehend! Perhaps you'll find friendships that spring from new things As you challenge your status quo, And learn there are so many options in life, Perhaps you'll go places you never expected And see things that you've never seen, O! r travel to fabulous, faraway worlds And wonderful spots in between! Perhaps you'll find warmth ... Read Full Story >>