Stories of Kindness from Around the World

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 >>

Soldier's Dinner

My mom just got back from a teacher's convention in Nashville Tennessee, and they went to a restaurant where there was this soldier eating dinner all alone. She decided to pay for his meal but when they went to do it, someone had already done it! The waiter said he couldn't believe how many people were willing to pay for a complete stranger's dinner.

An Open Space

I'm rather new to this and I have yet to officially tag someone with a card :) Yet I'm working up to it. Since joining a week ago, I've noticed a distinct shift in my actions towards others. Last week on the subway, I went out of my way to offer an elderly woman my seat, and the look she gave me was so intense, it made me smile. I've been holding more doors since, and letting more people in front of me.

Dirty dishes have been another glorious opportunity to produce smiles and good vibes.

So just yesterday I was walking by my car which is parked outside of my apartment. While walking by I noticed that my car had some extra space in front of it. Then I saw a car slowly creeping down the street in desperate search of a space and an opportunity to give presented itself :) I grabbed my keys, motioned to the woman in the car and created just enough space for us both to park. Her face lit up and it was clear how grateful she was.

So I realize I'm starting small, yet I just thought I would share these few moments with you all. I hope to add more moments soon.

Talk soon, buddies!

Turtle

Good deeds = good life

I always want to inspire people to smile, breath, and be happy. Think positive and remember how good it feels to help others.

Lessons from an old woman on the bus

Last night on my way back from work, I was caught again in a crowded bus where you don't even have space to put your legs on the floor at times. Every person's attention is to the next seat which gets vacant.

It is a like a tight musical chair situation. An old lady with heavy luggage got in this bus. And after some time, somebody offered her a seat. A generous act.

What I saw after this was a display of an unconditional love. This lady kept offering to share her seat with whoever was standing next to her. The seat is meant for 2 people.

An old lady was showing me how easy it is to be kind and generous and what unconditional love is. She was passing her kindness to everyone of us without a smile card in her hand. I felt fortunate to be witnessing this standing behind her. She didn't even knew that she was doing a random act of kindness.

God bless her!

U2 Tickets

I work in media and often get some pretty great perks in my job. I wanted to share one of them with you - probably one of the hardest acts of kindness I have done yet!!! But it was worth it!!! I was at work yesterday and was about to leave when my supervisor walked into my office and handed me an envelope. She had two tickets to the U2 concert that was playing that night in her hand and said they were mine if I wanted them. I LOVE U2, they are my favourite band, and I quickly said yes very excited about the night ahead of me! Then I wondered who to take with me. My boyfriend is a big fan and would have loved to go, but 2 of my sisters are massive fans and I know they had been trying to get tickets (with no luck). So... ... Read Full Story >>

The Next Generation of Smiles

I am a teacher and am dedicated to inspiring my students to explore the joys of participating in community and of random acts of kindness. I'd like the children to use the cards in an act of kindness and come back to the classroom to describe that act and the results of the act.