Stories of Kindness from Around the World

Kindness, The New Stimulus Package

Are you just plain sick of being bombarded by the media with the untold horrors and predictions of our impending doom?  I've heard the words "Stimulus Package" so many times it doesn't even mean anything anymore. I want to introduce a new kind of stimulus package that doesn't have a thing to do with the government:  Kindness.  What do you think would happen if everyone practiced being kind for just one day?  I sure as heck know.  The world as we know it would be transformed.   Impossible?  Consider this:  I organized a Kindness Challenge at a local arts and jazz festival in April.  My goal was to remind people what happens when we practice being kind.  It's a feeling most of us have forgotten.  The challenge was to entice 100 people attending the festival to do 100 kind acts within 100 minutes.  The result amazed everyone involved because when all was said ... Read Full Story >>

Flowers, Anonymously

   Chelsi is this wonderful and drop dead gorgeous girl. She is the same age as me, and we've been best friends since as long as I can remember.

   This story has to do with something nice that someone did for her, in all actuality, it has nothing to do with me.

   We were sitting inside and earlier that week, Chelsi was bummed about something and we were talking about it. Then the doorbell rang I decided to get it while Chelsi just stayed in the living room. I answered the door and no one was there, but when I looked down there were a dozen roses!!  The tag said "To Chelsi."

   Chelsi was wondering why she'd received these until she read the rest of the card and all it said was: "Just because it's Wedneday. "
And it wasn't signed.

We Can All Be Bamboo Shoots

One of my fondest memories as a child is going by the river and sitting idly on the bank. There I would enjoy the peace and quiet, watch the water rush downstream, and listen to the chirps of birds and the rustling of leaves in the trees. I would also watch the bamboo trees bend under pressure from the wind and watch them return gracefully to their upright or original position after the wind had died down. When I think about the bamboo tree's ability to bounce back or return to it's original position, the word resilience comes to mind. When used in reference to a person this word means the ability to readily recover from shock, depression or any other situation that stretches the limits of a person's emotions. Have you ever felt like you are about to snap? Have you ever felt like you are at your breaking point? Thankfully, ... Read Full Story >>

Footprints of Love

I have been blessed with opportunity in my life, and it took the near-death of my dad to make me realize that my purpose in life is to help others. My dad was diagnosed with leukemia in 1998 and watching the pain and treatment that he endured inspired me to be a more kind and giving person.  It was like a smack in the face as I woke up one morning and realized life is just too short and it was time for me to make some changes – do the things in life that I wanted to do without making excuses why I couldn’t do them, or telling myself that I had plenty of time to do things. Well, you never know when your hourglass will run out of sand.  The time was now. My dad needed a bone marrow transplant. He was given a procedure in which he was able to reuse ... Read Full Story >>

Teaming Up With My Son

My son and I were at the grocery store together and as usual, he raced in ahead of me to go see what they were "sampling" that day.  I pulled out a cart and offered it to an elderly couple who were waiting behind me.  Well, once I went in and was doing my shopping, my son came up to me and told me, "You know what, there was a lady in a wheelchair shopping and she wanted to get her little boy a cup of milk, so I poured it and gave it to him!!"  I felt so happy that he took advantage of the opportunity to find someone to help! :-) 

The Rewards of Teaching English

Over the summer holiday I've been teaching English to students who have recently arrived in the country, as a refugee or as an asylum seeker, and speak little or no English.  It's the first time I've done this and it is a lot of fun.

We play lots of games like batting balloons around and calling out the colour - just daft stuff - but the students are so lovely and they so want to learn - who knows what they have been through.  I taught them survival words like - toilet roll, soap, toothpaste etc. by showing them the article and repeating the name.  Some have confidence, some are afraid, some are humorous - but all lovely!

I am really glad that I decided to do this - it's just 3 hours per week and so rewarding.  I have found that the more I give the more I get back - weird really as it flies in the face of logic.

Birds Are Our Teachers

Birds are our teachers. Not only do they teach us about freedom as they fly high above us but they show us how to build homes that don't destroy the earth and care for their little ones with love. Two friends recently shared stories with me of how they honored birds by rescuing them. I hope to honor them too by dedicating this to the birds of the world. This one is for the hope they bring to us in life:

HOPE is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all,
And sweetest in the gale is heard,
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.
I ’ve heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.

The Power of Gifting Flowers

My Flower Power give started with a trip to the flower store. I purchased 48 long-stem roses. I chose 4-Dozen because I was heading into round 4 of my giving for the 29-Day Giving Challenge (give something everyday for 29 days!). The manager gave me a discount and gifted me a bunch of those little water-holding do-hickeys that you can put on the ends of the stems to keep the flowers alive. If I lived in a place where it was possible to go pick wild flowers… or if I had a garden to pick from, I would have taken that route. I considered giving a few other types of flowers like daisies, or little rooted plants that people could keep longer or plant outside, but roses have spiritual significance for me. The rose is a symbol of protection that I often use in my meditations. I carefully chose the colors ... Read Full Story >>

Giving Up My Seat, The Canadian Way

A few years ago I was at an international conference with nearly 700 participants. One afternoon I attended a very crowded talk by a famous author. The hall filled quickly and soon there were no seats left but many dozens of people standing around the edges. I saw a very elderly man, stooped slightly from age, leaning against the wall. I immediately got up, told those sitting beside me to hold the place for him and made my way to him. When I offered my seat to him, he looked surprised and started to refuse, but I would have none of that. He asked me my name and thanked me deeply, then made his way back into my row and sat comfortably.  Many people who witnessed our exchange turned to say what a kind thing I had done and made quite a fuss over it. I kept saying "It's nothing special. I'm from Canada. It's normal for us to ... Read Full Story >>

A Smile That Planted Seeds of Kindness in My Son

I have been helping my 12-year-old son plant flowers, vegetables and just plants in general since spring arrived.  my son is VERY interested in growing plants. 

When we were planting a bunch of flowers one Saturday afternoon there were two flowers left in his try of flowers.  He decided to take them to the little house next door where an elderly woman lived by herself and didn't seem to have much company. 

I watched him as he went up to her door, rather hesitantly because he didn't know her, and he very quietly left the flowers on her doorstep so that she would get them the next time she went outside.

The next morning we saw that she had planted the flowers in a little planter by the door. 

It made my son smile - and has also planted a seed in him (no pun intended!) to do good for others.  He said to me "it feels really good to do things for others".

That's my boy!

An Invisible Gift of a Brochure

It was in the early 1970s that I was employed by Rockwell in Downey on the space shuttle program.  The pressure to produce was intense with constant demands to meet schedules with teams of people of disparate skills and motivation.  I had been involved in the Gurdjieff work for a short time and was beginning to experience a bit of the calm that comes from the meditation practice.  At lunch time, my habit was to walk around the area adjacent to the test facility.  One day while so occupied, I came across a small strip mall that had a space rented to a branch of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's Transcendental Meditation organization. Having a bit of curiosity about the technique, I entered the facility and spoke with a pleasant and slightly plump young woman who appeared to be quite calm.  Although it was not my interest to sign up for the courses ... Read Full Story >>

Honoring Loved Ones By Feeding Orphans

My mother-in-law lives far away from her three children and usually doesn't get to spend their birthdays with them.  There is always a card and a phone call, of course, but she does another amazing thing to celebrate her children---every year on their birthdays, she prepares a "birthday feast" for poor children in an orphanage near her home. Isn't that such a cool idea? 

Hope this idea might strike you when you are unable to be with a loved one for a holiday or birthday -- it makes you feel good by sharing the special day with those in need and know that you are honoring your loved one.

Why Didn't I Help Her?

On Monday at 2:35 pm, a bus full of passengers was going to 4 Bungalow from Andheri (E) in the outskirts of Bombay. There were a lot of guys on the bus who wanted to reach their destinations and were busy in their work. The bus was so crowded that you had to struggle even to get room to stand, forget about a seat. People were entering & exiting stop by stop. At one of the bus stops, an old lady came on the bus. She was not too old but looking tired and I think she was not well also. She had to go beyond 7 Bangalow which was a distance of at least one hour. I don’t know why I was watching her. I noticed after a few minutes that her legs were shivering slightly. Maybe she was tired and that’s why she was facing this problem. ... Read Full Story >>

Helping A Frail Old Man On A Hot Day

On Sunday we had some friends around for lunch.  I showed them some of the stories from this website and Kim, and her three daughters gave me a story to include:

"Today the girls and I were en route to Sainsbury’s when we noticed a particularly frail looking gentleman carrying a gasoline canister.  We stopped to enquire whether he was heading to Sainsbury’s petrol station and indeed he was.  We took him to the garage and waited whilst he filled his canister and returned him to his broken down car.  He was so grateful and just kept repeating his thanks (which amused my daughter to no end).  The journey was probably 2 miles each way which isn’t so bad for the likes of us young ones but as I said he was particularly frail looking, incredibly slow and the temperature was probably 30C!"

Kim is a great friend, with a big heart - her daughters are angels - I love them to bits!

Calling In A Neighbourly Favour For A Friend

Two days back when I was travelling to Delhi I received a phone call from a friend late in the night. She had missed her train from my home town Lucknow to India's financial capital Mumbai and had nowhere to go. I was not in town but I wanted to help this friend for three reasons :

1) She had phoned with hope and trust that I would help
2) She had helped me in the past
3) It was an opportunity for me to do an act of kindness. Vow !!!

I immediately called my neighbour (who is a very fine human being ) and said that I was sending this friend for a night stayover. My friend reached around midnight and you know what she got when she arrived: she was greeted with a hot cup of tea, a cozy bed, breakfast the next morning and contact details of a travel agent to rebook her train ticket.  

I have written this to express my gratitude and thank my neighbor  who did so much for a stranger, that too at odd hours. May her tribe increase!

The Kindness Chain

When I was studying, I used to work part time after school. We were actually poor. In the office where I used to work one person gave me money to attend classes so that I could learn and make myself a better person!

He didn't want anything in return and he always treated that money as a gift. When I tried to return the money to him later he said, "Keep it as a loan with you; when you come across a needy person help him like I helped you!"

I used that money and added some of my own and managed to help two people.  Those two people managed to help four people! I do not know how long the chain is now but that is how it works! It is multiplying and imagine all this is done without any fuss or clamouring for credit!

You help only those whom you want to.  There is no force. You may decide not to help also, but I have not met anybody who has received favours and has not done an act of kindness.

Start a chain today! Education is the best gift you can give!

Learning How To Teach

As she stood in front of her 5th grade class on the very first day of school, she told the children an untruth. Like most teachers, she looked at her students and said that she loved them all the same. However, that was impossible, because there in the front row, slumped in his seat, was a little boy named Teddy. Mrs. Thompson had watched Teddy the year before and noticed that he did not play well with the other children, that his clothes were messy and that he constantly needed a bath. In addition, Teddy could be unpleasant. It got to the point where Mrs. Thompson would actually take delight in marking his papers with a broad red pen, making bold X's and then putting a big 'F' at the top of his papers. At the school where Mrs. Thompson taught, she was required to review each child's past records and she ... Read Full Story >>

Teaching My Daughter Through A Real-Life Experience

One day I had my youngest daughter, Lauren, out shopping and running errands with me. We were rounding the corner of a fast-food place to pick up something quick to eat, a rare thing for us. There was what appeared to be a homeless man, maybe 65 or so, who had a couple of dogs on wire leashes. He wasn't begging, but he smiled and waved at us. Once we picked up our food, I drove back around and asked him how he was, and said his dogs looked as though they really loved him. He said indeed they all loved each other, then said something like, 'I lost about everything in a fire a few months ago (a building he was squatting in) except for these guys, and I have all I need. But I sure do miss my Bible.'  I smiled and waved, and told my daughter that we ... Read Full Story >>

A World of All Kinds of Kindness

   I can't thank God enough for putting kindness on my heart. I work for Dutch Bros. Coffee in Gresham, Oregon and at work we put all of our small change into a jar. The usual practice is to take all this change after it has accumulated for a while and spend it on employee lunch meeting.     One day, however,  i really needed gas money, so i asked our manager if I could use change and  he said, sure that's fine. I took the jar and put it in my car, but then I found that one of my fellow co-workers had lost his license and needed a ride home.  He lived all the way across Portland and I had little gas. I drove him anyway and to my surprise he gave me 20 dollars when i dropped him off. On my way back home I felt so greatfull that ... Read Full Story >>

A Most Precious Family Heirloom

I was at my in-law's house with my wife Julie and the kids. Julie's sister Jacquie was there with her children, so it was a real house full and I suppose it was difficult to keep an eye on everybody.

Josh, who must have been about eight at the time went into the kitchen to get something. A few minutes later we heard a crash. He had knocked his Gran's crystal fruit bowl over. We all rushed in and saw it shattered on the floor. Someone lifted a scared Josh out of the way while Gran, Julie and Jacquie cleared up the mess.

Gran didn't really say much during all this. Either Julie or Jacquie commented that they thought she would have been more upset, after all the crystal bowl was a family heirloom!

"Ah, well," said Gran. "So is Josh."

She finished the clearing up, went back into the living room, sat Josh on her knee and started chatting again. She was one crystal bowl poorer, but she still had her most precious family heirloom.