Stories of Kindness from Around the World

Loving Kindness Is Twice Blessed

I felt gloomy the other day. The weather had been dark and rainy, and I just didn’t feel so positive. It happens to us all, I guess. As I was sitting at my desk, I remembered it was the birthday of a dear long-time friend—a single, middle-aged woman who has dedicated the past 30 years to nursing and loves her work. Knowing that she doesn’t have family in town, I decided to give her a call. Sure enough, she was scheduled to work late into the evening, and wouldn’t have much of a birthday this year. As always, though, she sounded cheerful and was happy I called. After I hung up, I couldn’t shake the feeling that she would really appreciate a little attention on her special day. Still feeling a little gloomy myself, I tried to put it out of my mind, but as the day passed I couldn’t shake the thought. I ... Read Full Story >>

Let Your Voice Of Kindness Be Heard!

Have you seen the news off to the side on this website here about the extra $100 to spread kindness in the community?

A Joy Ride in Bangalore

I have recently been volunteering at a center for high-risk kids who live in the slums in Bangalore. These children now have a place to hang out, play and learn in a peaceful way.     I was generally lending a helping hand wherever I could -- teaching one child to read English, reading Sleeping Beauty to a group of kids, or playing blind man's bluff with some others. As I got out when the center closed, my aunts' Honda Civic car (In India Honda cars are fancy) stood outside.    The children were completely awestruck.  They hadn't been so close to a fancy car. The chauffeur/driver got out and opened the door.  They examined the inside, exclaiming that it was the coolest thing they had seen.  I asked them if they wanted a ride. Four little girls were jumping up and down, so excited that they could barely contain themselves and sit in their ... Read Full Story >>

Sweet Temptation To Be A Little Kinder

Hi dear friends...I was just laughing to myself thinking how I seem to anticipate logging onto this webbsite every chance I get and it's awesome how I never get dissappointed really.  It's all that I long for and more...real people with real stories to share that actually happen to them.

When you hear others talking about things that seem so far off from you it's so amazing the strength that creeps into you and suddenly your mind goes in a new direction where it's all I can all the way.

I'm tempted in a good way every time I log on and even when I don't, just thoughts of stories read and new friends made gives me enough reason to be a little kinder.  A little blinder to the faults that are so evident in our everday lives and focus more on the goodness and joy life actually brings.

Thank you every one who is a member of this website.  You are "temptors temptresses"....bringing along sweet temptation to this little one's life...

A Flourishing "Free" Market

We are a small town of less than 4,000 people in the mountains of Ecuador . Recently our new organic farmers cooperative started hosting one afternoon a week to exchange our produce and seeds among ourselves...no money changes hands. As of this past week we started to lay our stuff on wooden tables set in a portal on the main square, we hold hands around the table to give thanks to our ancestors who used to do this in ancient times in this country, and we pray in thanks, either out loud or silently according to each one's own spiritual beliefs. Then comes the fun... each person around the table tells and shows what she brought.  Each one, in turn, goes around picking and taking what he NEEDS to either feed him/herself and family, and to add to their garden that which is missing. This last Thursday was one such day and some ... Read Full Story >>

The Seven Wonders of Love

Love is the highest emotion in life. When one practices love, one can love the self first and from there the love flows to your most cherished life members, family members , forever friends, and extends to your neighbors, your community, strangers, your city, your country, your continent, and ultimately, the universe. Here is a love prescription, or rather a compilation of love exercises that I assembled which I hope can be a fruitful source of love generation for you:  The seven ways to love oneself are: 1. When you wake up in the morning,give yourself three loving compliments.  2. Before you go to sleep, think of three good things that happened to you that day.  3. When you brush your teeth in the morning, look into your    eyes and say, "I love you" and mean it.  4. During the day, pay attention to any subtle energy shifts     and ask your heart for guidance, when anything is off      balance.   5. Put ... Read Full Story >>

The Power of Anonymity

This past Friday I received an anonymous gift from someone and I really want to tell the person, whoever it was, thank you sooo much. I have no idea if this person is even on myspace, but I hope that my thanks somehow reaches him or her. Honestly, not only was the gift amazingly beautiful and touching, but it also reminded me that there are kind people in this world. These past few weeks have been the hardest days of my life and this small gift really gave me a lot of hope for this cruel, violent world. Usually when people give gifts they do it because they want to experience the joy that it brings the other person, the person who gave me my gift did not even get to see that from me and I think that shows what a truly amazing and genuine person this is. Thanks again, the ... Read Full Story >>

Paying a Mother's Bus Fare

"If you want others to be happy, practice compassion.  If you want to be happy, practice compassion."  ~Dalai Lama

I haven't been here for a couple of days because I have had exams. I was so so happy to come online this morning and find so many inpirational, beautiful stories that had been posted. I am so honored to be a part of this kindness quest.

I paid someone's bus fare last night on the bus home. The bus driver seemed very confused, but when i explained and handed the smile card over, he was happy to join in. I watched the face of the woman with two kids from under my sunglasses as the bus driver explained, and I know he must have added more of his own money, as I had only given him enough for one ticket, but he didn't make the kids pay either. I was worried that the woman wouldn't bother reading the smile card, but she did and she put it her purse to keep.

Hope everyone is having a happy and peaceful week xx

A Vaccination in Kindness!

For those of you having a rough week, I put together some bulleted list of thoughts of my own and a few from the sages of our past who can help inject you with some jolts of kindness this week!   The best thing we can do for ourselves and the people in our lives is to love them unconditionally, forgive them without reservation and to accept them exactly as they are.  Contentment is not the fulfillment of what you want, but the realization of how much you already have.   It's not the load that breaks you down. It's the way you carry it. ~Lena Horne - American actress and singer   It's hard to beat a person who never gives up. ~Babe Ruth- Major League Baseball player   You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed ... Read Full Story >>

An Anonymous Wedding Gift

When my sister got married some time back, we were all excited.  After her honeymoon she invited me over to her house to help her unwrap the gifts and send some thank you notes to all the people that came to the wedding party.  As a side note, my sister works at Standard Bank in Malawi. Going through the gifts, we came across this precious exotic ice bucket in silver and gold.  I had never seen such a beautiful ice bucket.  Inside it was a note that read, "When I heard you were getting married, I asked around for the details and somehow managed to get here.  You might not know me but I know you.  I am a regular customer at Standard Bank and you helped me a lot when I was applying for a loan.  I will never forget what you did, God bless you.  -- Anonymous" When I showed my sister the note, she couldn't remember who the person ... Read Full Story >>

What about Tips from Tao?

I sometimes feel like I have spent the first half of my life struggling to get ahead and haven’t really gotten anywhere to speak of, though I do catch myself always in a hurry. I seem to not have time to talk because I have got an endless supply of "things to do." This persistent behavior made me really pay attention to this short  story that captures a few key life truths in a nutshell: “There was a man who disliked seeing his footprints and his shadow. He decided to escape from them and began to run, but as he ran along, more footprints appeared, while his shadow easily kept up with him. Thinking he must be going too slowly, he ran faster and faster without stopping, until he finally collapsed from exhaustion and died. If he had stood still, there would have been no footprints. If he had rested in the shade, his shadow would have disappeared.” As we ... Read Full Story >>

Unusual Opportunity to Help a Student

I've been really tied up recently helping my elderly parents out of a crisis and sorting out their house.  But sometimes unusual opportunities present themselves to you, which is what happened today. I was heading out of town on my way to a well-earned picnic in the countryside, waiting to turn across a stream of traffic into a side road, when I noticed out of the corner of my eye a pedestrian apparently crossing the road at an unexpected and rather dangerous place. The figure of a young woman eventually arrived at my passenger window in the middle of a two-lane road, looking distressed and pleading for a lift to a college in town, where she should have been taking an exam which had started 10 minutes earlier, having been let down by the bus. I gave her a lift and she eventually arrived 20 minutes late. It would probably have been ... Read Full Story >>

Cherish Life Today for Tomorrow May Never Come

  Let Me Be A Little Kinder Glen Campbell   Let me be a little kinder Let me be a little blinder To the faults of those about me Let me praise a little more Let me be when I am weary Just a little bit more cheery Think a little more of others And a little less of me Let me be a little braver When temptation bids me waver Let me strive a little harder To be all that I should be Let me be a little meeker With the brother that is weaker Let me think more of my neighbor And a little less of me Let me be when I am weary Just a little bit more cheery Let me serve a little better Those that I am strivin' for Let me be a little meeker With the brother that is weaker Think a little more of others And a little less of me   We attend a funeral service planned for Danny at 2pm on Friday.   ~ModestoBob     Last week, two days before Father’s Day, a close personal ... Read Full Story >>

Trusting Your Instinct to Help

The other day I had several errands to run.  As I started out, I noticed I was going to need to get gas in the next few days.  I had plenty to do the things I needed to do but something told me to go get gas, so I decided to trust it even though it didn’t really make much sense.    The moment I started pumping the gas, I heard “thump, thump, thump, thump.”  Before I even looked up, I knew what that sound was:  a flat tire.  I knew instantly why I was there.  I walked over to the car where a lady was wondering what happened.  She rolled down her window and I asked her if I could help.  She was relieved and instantly replied, “Yes.”  I finished pumping my gas while she cleaned out her trunk to get to the spare tire.  I changed her tire and directed her where to ... Read Full Story >>

Adding the Home Made Touch to Smile Cards

I have for sometime been wanting to make some homemade smile cards because I wanted to add a homemade touch to them. So a couple days ago I started pulling out some crafting supplies, and I got really excited and started challenging myself to come up with Ideas. I wanted a special handcrafted series of smile cards I could give out, and that someone could see how special these are, especially because it makes you smile just doing it! My 7 year-old, Dale, and his friend Nic wanted to do some cards, so I precut a bunch of cards a bit larger than the smile cards and we designed camp scenes (Dale's idea) with small colorful plastic racoon embellishment, and dragon fly on one card, and on another with a plastic smiley flower, and honey bee, with hand drawn scenery by me, and the kids glueing diferent textures & colors. The following day another girl from Dale's class showed up and wanted to make smile cards, ... Read Full Story >>

The Origin of the Word "Kind"

Have you ever wondered why we make such a big deal about living kindly?  For a lot of us it’s just innate, feels like the right thing to do.  But, that little voice in my head warned me one night, “Don’t take kindness for granted—find out why!”  So I did, and made an exciting discovery in the process. What prompted me to make this quest for kindness was realizing in a special moment of wonder where I was standing—upon parched earth that has become the condition called drought where I live in Colorado.  I looked up and felt dwarfed by the titanic spruces and pines and aspens that surround my house.  They didn’t seem the least bit phased by the fact that a spark or bolt of lightning could sentence their lives to a furious death. I thought about how unkind and cruel nature can be.  Then I wondered, is it nature ... Read Full Story >>

An Experiment in Peace

 A while ago I was taught the importance of positive thinking and manifesting warm thoughts into the universe by my auntie, a very wonderful woman. She taught me the importance of creating space for ourselves daily and channeling postivity into the world as a form of healing. I found it not just inspiring but of practical daily value, so I thought I would share the blessing of the peace exercise with you.  Every morning when I wake up, I take a few moments to write down in three things for which I am grateful for in my ocean blue spiral notebook. I then spend five minutes or so looking through my window toward the sunlight of our world and I breathe "peace" in and out of me with each inhalation and exhalation. I concentrate on the rhythm of my heartbeats, and keep the pace of my breath gradual as I release peaceful, happy vibrations into the universe. After a day of life experiences and before I take rest,  I remind myself of the three 'thankyous' from my ... Read Full Story >>

Jasmine the Greyhound

In 2003, police in Warwickshire, England, opened a garden shed and found a whimpering, cowering dog.. It had been locked in the shed and abandoned. It was dirty and malnourished, and had clearly been abused. In an act of kindness, the police took the dog, which was a Greyhound female, to the nearby Nuneaton Warwickshire Wildlife Sanctuary, run by a man named Geoff Grewcock and known as a willing haven for Animals abandoned, orphaned or otherwise in need. Geoffand the other sanctuary staff went to work with two aims to restore the dog to full health, and to win her trust. It took several weeks, but eventually both goals were achieved. They named her Jasmine, and they started to think about finding her an adoptive home. But Jasmine had other ideas. No-one remembers now how it began, but she started welcoming all Animal arrivals ... Read Full Story >>

A Family Tradition Lives On

Every morning my friend would stop on the way to work to grab a quick breakfast for herself and her son, before dropping him off at school. They tended to frequent the same eatery every morning grabbing an egg sandwich, juice, coffee for her, milk for him.   One day she ordered an additional breakfast. Once they had eaten and were headed out the door, she stopped, said good morning to a homeless man sitting outside of the restaurant and handed him the additional breakfast she had ordered. He thanked her profusely, grinning, telling her it was the first meal he had in a great many days. She couldn't help but feel good and was glad she finally took action. She told her son that she had seen him every day that week outside the restaurant and that no one, herself included, had stopped to offer him support, food, drink, comfort, etc. She further explained that homelessness ... Read Full Story >>

A Smile for a Girl With No Friends

Hello to all kind doers out there. I go to school and have extremely nice teachers. I brought my smile cards to share out with people I thought would enjoy the warmth of this website, so I handed up my homework along with a smile card and a note saying, "Hope and kindess. Hop on and share it along with feel it". I never saw the teachers read it but I knew they would appreciate it! I only had a few smile cards so I couldn't share with every teacher so I gave it to as many as i could but I felt like I just needed to save one so just in case I saved two. My last lesson was Sose and I have it with a bunch of my friends.  One girl has not got many friends, so I always am nice to her and chat and invite her to be in groups with us.  She was all on her ... Read Full Story >>