Stories of Kindness from Around the World

Sushi & Cookies

Last night my wife decided she wanted to make sushi and chocolate chip cookies for the Pastors at our church. She started late about 10pm and at midnight, I was to tired to do much more and went to bed. When I awoke this morning it was like Santa had visited. Here were all these packages wrapped with ribbons and bows which wowed me and she was afraid her gifts wouldn't be received well, silly girl. We delivered them to the church and when we dropped off Pastor Pauline's she smiled and said "You too good" to my wife.

I do a lot of volunteer work in the garden at the church and as my wife works she doesn't have the time to volunteer so her way of saying thank-you was to donate her culinary talents to those who fill us up with that spiritual soul food. I was proud of her and I know she felt good being able to give back and it says to me that it's so easy to let others know we care. Merry Christmas everyone!

Helping Others to Help Myself

I just wanted to share this with everyone. This Christmas I' feeling down and miss my mom  who died of cancer. So I thought of a better way to forget my problems and decided to volunteer at the local nursing home. For Christmas, I will be doing a good deed.

Salvation Army

Last night while I was waiting for my mom to pick me up outside the mall. I saw the same lady that I saw last week and the pass two days taking a break outside.

She works 8 hour days as one of those Salvation Army people who stand outside stores ring a bell for donations.
So I really wanted to give her something. I looked in my bag and I found some candy in my bag.

I went up to the lady and told how her how much that means to me and how much I really appreciate what she is doing.
I handed her a smile card and went back to waiting for my mom.

Children Have The Best Hearts

This year, my family applied for Christmas Assistance from the Salvation Army. I'm a single mom and have not been able to work. Dad's a bit of a non-entity and was fired earlier in the year so times have been really tough.  My son has been in and out of the hospital for six years with severe kidney disease. He is 8 years old and his brother is 7. My sons know we have money troubles, but not the mass extent of it. They have and will always be provided for as I have a very loving and supporting set of parents. We were at Meijer and I was stressing about grocery money, and gas money and the holidays coming up.  Meanwhile, my 8-year-old sees the Salvation Army guy, and it's really cold and he asks if we can give him some change. My son walks over and gives the guy a dollar, and my ... Read Full Story >>

Who did it?

One Christmas I had a bit of fun in the work place.  I worked in a postal delivery/business center and one day before Christmas while all the posties were out delivering their mail I went around to each posties sorting frame and left some chocolates. 

It was so much fun to watch their reactions as they came back from delivering the mail, all wondering who had done this to them. 

I am not sure who felt more pleasure from this, the posties because someone recognised them or me for the simple joy of knowing I had made a bunch of people feel special.  Still brings a tear to my eye!

Fight Club and the Passerby

Recently, my dad was walking along from the office to the high court (being a lawyer). There he saw a young man being beaten up by 5 others.

My dad is really thin and puny and not in the least bit tough-looking or athletic. But something prompted him to just go onto the scene and protect the guy. He hugged the young man and began acting as if he knew him from a long time. Soon, the other 5 rough guys recognized him for being a lawyer and left the youth alone. He thanked my dad and said he could not express how he felt.

Giving support

A friend of mine called me at 2 am. I am an owl and usually work through the night, so I was awake. She was going through some problems and wanted to talk to me about them. I am overloaded with work right now, under a lot of pressure and incredibly stressed out. I too have a lot on my mind apart from just my work. But I decided to stop what I was doing, put it all on hold and talk her through her problems. I think it did the trick because we managed to find some kind of clarity to the situation after the conversation. I hope she feels better. However I know that sometimes it is not really what you talk about or whether you have found a clear solution to the problem that matters. What really matters is knowing that when you are going through a tough time, you ... Read Full Story >>

Courage and Composure

Remaining calm and level-headed in moments of crisis is a challenge -- particularly when you're only nine years old. But when second-grader Jimmy Steven's mother fell unconscious behind the driving wheel, he knew just what to do.

Jumping onto his mother's lap he steered the car to the side of the road, put it in park and dialed 911. For the next eleven minutes, he calmly directed paramedics to the car where he and his younger siblings were waiting. Jimmy's courage and composure saved his mother's life, and his bravery earned him a medal from the local police and other honors from the town.

Read more at http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/state/16130243.htm?source=rss&channel=dfw_state

My Fair Lady

Last week, one of my colleagues gave me two tickets to the musical My Fair Lady  - it was the opening night and she got the tickets from somebody else in the ofice. Seeing that she has a small boy and couldn't go, she offered me the tickets.

I phoned my two daughters and asked  what should I do - try and find a friend to go with me [my husband was out of town and both my daughters are visiting with their babies without their husbands] when my youngest daughter offered to look after her sister's ten-week-old baby so that she could go with me - she said that she thinks her sister deserves an evening out!

I felt so grateful that my youngest daughter would do this for my eldest daughter! She was a bit despondent to leave her baby but we did go  and enjoyed the evening tremendously! Before we close at work for the Christmas season, I will most certaibly give my colleague a nice present!

Lost Wallet and six-hundred Dollars worth of Kindness

Yesterday, while at a bank machine in a very poor part of town, my husband and I found a wallet.  We opened it up to look for ID and the first thing we saw was a picture of a toddler sitting on Santa's knee.  We knew we had to find this father.  We found his drivers licence and gave him a call.  His wife answered the phone and told us he was out looking for his wallet.  We left our phone number and 10 minutes later he called.  He told us because of the poor area of town his friend told him he could say good-bye to the wallet, he would never see it again.  He was so grateful, he offered us $100 as a reward.  My husband and the gentleman made plans to meet and as my husband was getting ready I gave him one of the smile cards.   My ... Read Full Story >>

Tiny Quilts

Preemies are so tiny that everything is too big for them. I made 20 tiny quilts that I'm donating to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

My granddaughter was born there and wasn't able to come home for 11 months. This is a gift from me to the hospital for being willing tools of God's miracles.

"Spare Change" of Kindness

I had a meeting to go to and pulled up to a metered parking spot in a busy commercial area.  I grabbed a handful of change to feed the meter and discovered that I had an hour and eight minutes on my meter.  So with a smile on my face, I proceeded to walk down the street towards the building where I had my meeting.  Every other parking spot was occupied because of the holiday bustle, and the first meter I passed had expired, though a car was still sitting there. I instantly realized that it would be such a downer for a holiday shopper to get get a ticket in the midst of shopping for loved ones, so I paid forward my meter blessing by dropping a few coins into that meter.  Walking further, I found another car with an expired meter and drop some coins there as well.  ... Read Full Story >>

Wired to be Inspired

Most theories in social sciences say that people's actions and feelings are motivated by self-interest. So here's a puzzle: why do we care when a stranger does a good deed for another stranger?

Psychologist Jonathan Haidt has been pondering this question for years. Haidt uses the phrase "elevation" to describe the warm, uplifting feeling that people experience when they see unexpected acts of human goodness, kindness or courage -- and the power of this feeling to inspire widespread compassion.

Examples of elevation exist across cultures and historical eras. While psychology has traditionally focused its energy on studying the origin and impact of negative moral emotions such as guilt and anger, Haidt's work seeks to look scientifically at the compelling effects of goodness.

Read more at http://peacecenter.berkeley.edu/greatergood/archive/2005springsummer/SpringSummer05_Haidt.pdf

Out of Cards :)

smile cards and karma

I have found a happiness so special  in giving out  smile cards.  My friends are glad to receive and give back in return - very fulfiling.  Each time I pass along a card to them, they have loved it.  I even have had a friend ask me if she could have a smile card. Smiling with happines, I gave her a card. I only have one card left.  Now that I know what karma points are, I am going to order more!!  SPREAD THE SMILES!!
 

In need of change

I was standing in the checkout line at the grocery store when the lady in front of me was short of money, so she started to put some things back. I told her I would pay the difference, because I keep spare change in a separate pocket of my coat for times like these.

The Hug Game

Just this pass week I was finding it kind of hard to pass smile cards around school - with finals coming I found myslef stuck inside studying. So one day when I was sick of studying, I stopped and saw that one of my freinds looked like she needed a hug.

I went up to her and gave her a big hug. Just then, something clicked in my mind. If my friend needed a hug, then somebody else might need a hug too. So I thought of my smile cards. While giving her a hug,  I said these words:
"Tag - you've just been hugged. When you see somebody that needs a hug, give them one and say what I just said."

"Mahalo Nui Loa"

I just finished my Human Services practicum and as much as I loved the class and the instructor, I was dissapointed with my classmates. It was a small class - just 12 of us - and the other students took advantage of the instructor's kindness with late work, excuses for not completing assignments, etc.  During the last 3 weeks of class, she was expressing her dissatisfaction and how she was going to have to re-think how she taught the class next semester. I really felt bad for her as she is a great inspiration to me and I could relate to her pain. In Chicken Soup for the Soul, there is a story about two guys walking down the beach covered with starfish. One guy is throwing the starfish back into the ocean as they walk. The other guy says "There are thousands of them you can't possibly make a difference."  At that ... Read Full Story >>

Soup for the Soul

Today I remembered to mail some money to a soup kitchen in NY that always struggles this time of year feeding the homeless.  I'm strapped for cash this year (like all of us) but on our first real day of cold, I was reminded just how awful it must be to be cold and on the street.

Not An Ordinary World Cup

The soccer ball sounds like the clatter of a rattlesnake's tail, fans are barred from cheering too loudly and the sidelines are clear plastic walls meant to keep the players in-bounds -- clearly not an ordinary World Cup. Save for the goalkeepers, all of the athletes are legally blind.

Welcome to the fourth World Championships of Soccer for the Blind. Spectator Marcelo Gonzalez, who coaches blind teenagers and 20-somethings in Argentina, said he still marvels how sightless players are so attuned to sounds, vibrations and the fast-changing position of their competitors.

Read more at http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/11/24/america/LA_GEN_Argentina_Blind_World_Cup.php