Stories of Kindness from Around the World

Vacation update

Kindness is contagious

I was in a great mood last weekend and started talking to a homeless person near Times Square.  Watching me being nice to that old lady caught the fancy of 2 passerbys who came by and gave her a soda and some cookies. 

Kindness for a Cancer Patient

I'm having chemo at the moment and got on the bus feeling rather weak and sick. A little old lady got up to let me sit down saying "I know what it's like." She was glancing at my headscarf which covers my baldy head.  Full marks to her for consideration and KINDNESS  XXX

Just Because

When my husband and I go to a fair and we get beaded necklaces, or if we win prizes (my husband loves games) or if we have extra tickets to the rides, we give them to a child who looks they need a smile. We don't have kids so who better to give them to?

At the petting zoo, I always share my food with young kids and let them feed the animal with my hand underneath if they are scared.  There is nothing better than to know you just lit up a child's face.

A smile for a kid who needed it!

My mom came to see me at college and then we went to see my little brother play basketball. While we were there, we saw one of her students who had a lot going on in his life at the time. He had it pretty rough.

Free Surprise from a Grocery Store- A kid's dream

The strangest thing happened to me. I was up early with the baby and decided to go to the grocery store.  When I entered Albertson's grocery store, there was a cart full of FREE candy and kid's treats. I was so surprised- they even had nice candy corn (a treat I think of fondly from having neighbors in Wisconsin who used to give this out to the kids) for free.  I still couldn't believe it - chocolate, candy corn, stuffed animals, balloons.  I checked with the manager to make sure this wasn't a mistake! He said "Take it all. Give it to the neighborhood kids." Then it dawned on me- how about taking it and spreading kindness to all the kids in the neighborhood!  So I loaded a cart full (and still had to pinch myself because this just doesn't happen to me. I give a lot of free ... Read Full Story >>

Cleaning Up Bad Habits

My lovely roommates are always complaining about my messy ways.

My roommates were out of town this weekend so I decided to completely clean the kitchen, the bathroom, and the living room as a surprise. 

Boy, were they shocked!

My Mom's First Truly Anonymous Kind Act

Here's a story my mom recently emailed our family. I thought I'd share with the group! Per your invitation card instructions, I decided to do my first truly anonymous act of kindness as my baby-shower offering. For Junior, I wanted to crochet a receiving blanket and I just learned crocheting. Then I realized what you had asked for was an anonymous act of kindness. I decided to do it for someone unknown. I got white yarn and started crocheting with as much good wishes and blessings as possible for an unknown baby. It came out beautifully with a center area of shaded blue. And I myself felt a little bit attached to it by the time it was completed! But I remembered what you had asked for. So I asked a friend to accompany me. She had no experience of this sort either. First, we decided to ... Read Full Story >>

A New Generation of Smiles

I plan to hand these cards out to college students to encourage them to go out and change the world. “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” – Margaret Mead

Science Fiction, Kindness Non-Fiction

I was renewing my library card the other day, and overheard the transaction of the user being assisted by the adjacent clerk. If not outright homeless(he carried with him two large bags of possessions), the scruffy man was clearly going through an extremely hard time. It seems that he was unable to check out a book because he had an outstanding $3.00 fine on some books he had turned-back late. He told the clerk there was no possible way for him to pay the fine. I reached over and slipped the man three dollars. He paid his fine and thanked me profusely: "I don't know how I could make it through a night on the street without my science fiction." That is not the story. Here's the story. As he was getting up to leave, I was in the process of fishing through my wallet for a photo ... Read Full Story >>

Grocery Store

I was at a grocery store today. Rob, a second grade student and his mom were in line ahead of me to pay. 

Rob had a 20 oz Coke bottle in his hand.  As soon as his mom paid, Rob opened up the bottle and started guzzling Coke.  

Apparently he dropped the bottle on the floor and made a mess.   His mom slapped him and the store keeper was pissed as he had to clean it up. 

As Rob was crying, I decided to buy him another Coke. 

I gave the coke and a smile card to his mother.  I also offered the store keeper, if I could help him clean up.  He just smiled and took care of it.  

Rob stopped crying and actually sang a song for me before leaving cheerfully.

Opening Doors

Today at Union Station, two female paramedics were carrying a heavy stretcher.   I simply opened the door for them so that they could go in and out at will.  

I held the door  in the cold for about 10 mins as they rushed between their ambulance and the track where the patient was!  Not sure if this is a random act of kindness, but felt good :-)

Smile Jar

I was volunteering at a pie fair in early fall this year and when I visited a white elephant tent called "Grandma's Attic" I found a jar of smiles for 25 cents. They were slips of paper with random encouraging sayings printed on them.  How perfect!?  So I grabbed it, a whole jar of smiles for a quarter, and planted it next to me on the pie slice table.  As people purchased their pie slices, they were encouraged to also take a smile, to go. 
Once you add smiles and kindness to your personal routine, the universe finds ways to support you!

Unloading Bricks

I was interviewing a friend near a school, and a man came up and started unloading bricks near us. He was doing his best to be very quiet and not interrupt our shooting, but was having difficulty keeping the noise down and had a huge load to unload.  We decided to help him unload his truck and spent the next hour chatting as we did that. 

The beauty and coincidence of the situation was that we had selected that shooting location because of the stunning murals on the wall of that school.  It turned out that this man had been instrumental in getting the PTA to agree to allow an artist to paint those murals.  So in a way, he had already done something for us by giving us an amazing shoot location-- and then happened to show up right as we were shooting to continue his good work such that we could repay his kindness by helping him.

Midnight roses

I was recently at a conference in Barcelona, Spain (home of Gaudi) when I thought, wouldn't it be great to do a little act of kindness in a far away city? I went through the lively La Rambla street - enjoying the scene and (in the back of my mind) looking for an opportunity of kindness. But I couldn't find anything right away. It was mostly tourists and street vendors.

Finally, I returned to the hotel past midnight when a haggardly old man came up to me and asked if I wanted to buy a rose. He had not sold one all day and was tired and hungry. I had a friend with me. She warned me that this could be simply a 'line' to rope me in. But I knew what to do. I bought 2 roses, gave her one and walked inside the hotel lobby and surprised someone with the second rose.

Ultimately it was really just a couple of Euros but at the end of it, at least 4 people were smiling on their way back to the bed.  

The Secret

A friend of mine was deeply concerned about lack of funds for survival to say nothing about what is needed for her to effectively make her contribution to the world.

I sent her some paypal money so she could view The Secret online, which is a wonderful movie about the Law of Attraction and how to create resources through bypassing fear and creating the feeling of what it would be like to have it.

Mikey's Kindness Booklet

For their first baby-shower, my cousin and her husband created a very unique kindness theme for everyone to partake in. To support their heartfelt intention, my wife and I decided to surprise them with a booklet that contained many of our favorite stories from the HelpOthers.org site. The compassion conspiracy, as we soon learned, went way above and beyond our expectations. On Saturday, Michael was running the night shift at the 24-hour Kinkos and flat out said that they won't be able to get the project done that night. We nodded but still carried on with our part of bargain -- photocopying, sorting, printing. Four hours (and many adventures) later, Michael had become Mikey, he knew about deep interest in kindness and we knew about his dream of hittin' it big as a hip-hop DJ. By midnight, our homie says to us: "Alright, ... Read Full Story >>

Grandma

My grandmother who used to be a social butterfly has gone back in her cacooon.  I think it is due to the fact that a lot of her friends have died over the last 4 years.  Her only existing friend also died 2 months ago.

She was extremely funny, charming and talkative.   Now she has grown quite and barely says anthing.  It's hard to keep a conversation going with her for more than 5 minutes as she mainly responds with "yes" or "no"

I called her this morning and mentioned about random acts of kindness at Yale.  She actually gave me a lot of ideas and talked to me for over 15 minutes.  It made my day and to some extent I am sure it made hers. 

She even cracked a joke - "So should I be watching out for a care-package from you?"  :-)

Selfless Smiles

We have many "brothers and sisters" who are always doing something for others and think of others first regardless of what their life is like. God bless you and continue to guide you and bring smiles to others always.

A circle of kindness

This weekend I was reminded about how  the workings of the Universe really connect us all!  On Saturday in the late afternoon, I realized I lost my wallet. I returned back to the mall thinking I must have dropped it in the parking lot, so I retraced my steps to look for it.  When I didn't find it there, I started gettting very nervous and went inside to the lost and found to see if someone turned it in.  One of the security officers spent an hour trying to help me figure out where I could have lost it!  We went back to the parking lot and I saw the woman that had parked her car right after mine the first time I was there.  I ran up to her with a smile thinking maybe she had found my wallet.  As I approached her, I saw a smile on her face and then ... Read Full Story >>