Search Results for 'popular' (3617 matches)

Deescalating A Frustrating Airline Situation With Raul

A funny story happened last week in Brazil. After delivering a program there my wife and I were catching the plane back to our home in Portugal. We entered the airport, passed security and reached boarding zone... and then discovered that the flight had been canceled. After 30 minutes calling the airline they told us that the only flight back would be today, (four days after the original flight). I felt my stomach tightening, my hands sweating, and my thoughts rushing about our cats, all the professional commitments I had already scheduled in Portugal, etc. I decided to take a breath, and as we were speaking with a security officer to get more information, I decided, that instead of panicking, to act with kindness and to ask about his story. The security officer's name was Raul, he wasn't happy in this job and in his country and his dream was to become a ... Read Full Story >>

Bidding For A Wedding Dress

I found a website where people auction clothes. 

Kindness Rewarded With a Book

I've been handing out smile cards for quite a while now with the singular objective of seeing the person smile and today because of that I won a contest which was very cool!

My daily newspaper ran an article about 'spreading joy', and had a contest at the end of an article asking how people spread joy.  I entered and told them all about 'HelpOthers.org' so people could check it out.  In today's newspaper I saw my name in print, I was one of 4 winners.  I won a book about Joy and Happiness!!

How about that??

Unexpected Roses During Challenging Times

I live in a small friendly town. Due to the current challenging times the number of charity shops is almost the same as the number of  " normal" shops.

I am a regular costumer at the local charity shops, lately looking for teddy bears. There are people that I see working there on a regular basis and I think how lovely it is that they always have volunteers to run the shops.

Today I decided to visit each of the charity shops and leave a rose, a 29gifts and a smile card to each of the volunteers working there. Most of them were surprised, one asked if I was selling the roses ( meaning, I hope, they looked good enough to be sold ) and a lady commented that it was a lovely idea.

My next project is to do the same on the villages around my town. One village at a time.

A Wave and a Smile Worth a Million Bucks

I was late for work, another 14 hour day.

At the stop sign on my way to work, it was unusually busy. An Indian family with a child who had disability was sitting on the wheelchair waiting for the traffic to clear in order to cross the street. The boy had a deformed face, not to mention the rest.

Finally after all the cars flew past the intersection, the family wheeled the child to the other side of the street.

The boy's sister(?), a young girl, suddenly turned around and waved at me with a big, bright smile. It seemed that she was saying, "Thanks for waiting so long."

All of a sudden, I realized that however busy it was at work, her smile was a million dollars to me. I didn't do anything but I received such precious gift of the day.

One stolen light projector and three friendly neighbors helped restore faith

I was just blown away with an act of kindness by three strangers, who are now friends. A few nights ago we had a light projector taken from our yard; it was my feeble attempt at decorating for Christmas. I made a posting on 'Nextdoor,' a neighborhood website. It wasn't a mean spirited post at all. I tried to muster all the love and compassion I could for whoever took it. In fact, many neighbors commented on how much they loved my approach. Then, out of the blue, I get a message of someone wanting to come over and introduce themselves to me. I drove up just in time and was approached by Cynthia and Ken, along with their son Nikhil. Cynthia had read my post and didn't want me to lose faith in humanity, so to show me that there are good people in our neighborhood they went out and ... Read Full Story >>

A Heartfelt Way to End the Year

There is a family in our neighborhood that moved here from Sri Lanka. Their daughter goes to the same school as my children so we see her at the bus stop often. They have had a tough time since they came to America. They had some medical bills last week that made Christmas gifts not possible.

I told my wife that we needed to help her. We got the family a gift card and two toys for each of her two children. When my wife called her mom and told her what we were going to do, she wanted to help too. She bought a few gifts for each child as well.

We took over the gifts, some cookies and wrapping paper for the gifts. The woman was so happy and excited that the kids would have some things to open for Christmas. We couldn't be happier ourselves that we had spread a few smiles.

Some friends and I are doing 10 kind acts for the last 10 days of the year starting today. I thought this was a great way to start it off! It was six years ago today that I joined HelpOthers. It has changed my life in the BEST way, causing me to do more things like this than I ever have! Day one down, nine to go! :)

MSS

Dairy Queen Worker's Good Deed Goes Viral

A Minnesota Dairy Queen manager is getting widespread kudos for an act of kindness that required giving one customer the deep freeze treatment after some questionable behavior. Joey Prusak had just finished serving one of his regular customers when the visually impaired man unknowingly dropped a $20 bill from his pocket. A woman in line behind him quickly picked up the money – and then put it in her purse. "She picked it up so quickly that I thought she was going to give it back but she just stood there and waited," Prusak told TODAY.com. "I was extremely confused when she let the man walk by. She just stood there and put it in her purse and I was like, 'Really?' Prusak, 19, said the experience left him feeling "violated." After taking a few seconds to compose himself, he politely asked the woman to give the money back. The woman refused, insisting ... Read Full Story >>

Simple Loving Kindness Wherever You Are

  A good friend came to visit yesterday and really helped me appreciate a lot of things we take for granted.   She is French and lived here in the U.K. for several years. But recently, because of work commitments, she moved to a third country. She said it was such a culture shock and she cried for the first six weeks she was there.    What upset her was the lack of personal freedom and the lack of almost any expression of humanity in the government organisations. The people always felt they were being watched and the only way to get decent food and equipment was by taking part in a frightening black market economy.   But! Even in the midst of such darkness it is still possible to find some beautiful people; like her landlady, who visited her every day, helped with the three children - and even cooked for her! And the Head Teacher ... Read Full Story >>

A Kindness Idea to Remind People That They Matter

I received the most exciting message today!  My kindness idea was selected!

I am going to make up some baskets complete with "You Matter" and Smile Cards and take them to local retirement homes.  I will ask a staff member to give the resident most in need of this gift while explaining to them the idea of paying forward the kind act for someone else.

I hope this will start a kindness "epidemic" in the retirement homes that I take the baskets to.  This is just my way of telling them that they are not forgotten and they matter!

Thank you HELPOTHERS!!

Strawberry Smiles

My husband and I were driving back home when we saw an elderly lady selling strawberries on the street corner. (It's not too common to see people selling fruits on the street here - as I don't think they are allowed to.) I thought of how hard it must be to make a living like that, and even though I didn't really need strawberries (I had some already at home), I bought a huge "flat" of strawberries from her which had 6 containers of the juicy strawberries!

Now, it's just my husband, my son and me at home and we were never going to be able to eat them.  So I knew just what to do. When we got home, I took little baskets of strawberries around to our neighbors, especially to the elderly living alone and the kids with single moms. The berries were juicy and sweet.  They loved it!  We enjoyed them too, and had eaten them all within a day or two.

I kept hoping I'd see the lady selling them again, and lo and behold....there she was the following week. So, I did it again and gave them away to different neighbors this time! It was such a great feeling :-)

Lonesome Boy At A Gas Station

I have been fortunate enough to come from a family that has always been there for me, no matter what. Like all other families we have our differences of opinions, our fall-outs, our arguments, but we always make up and all is well again. Even in my high school and college days – misbehaving in abundance – I had supportive parents who would discipline me, but always left the door open. I was at the gas station filling up one day when I saw a boy in his teens. (I was a college student then.) I noticed there was something not quite right about the situation. He sat on the corner with his head hanging low. Then he saw a guy walking by and proceeded to ask him for change. The guy mocked him and laughed at him.    I was so saddened by this. I walked over to the boy and asked ... Read Full Story >>

A Generous Gesture That Made A Dream Come True

I had a dream for over a year, to attend the Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December. I had even reserved a hostel room a year in advance  because I so wanted to be there. I had worked very hard to arrange things, but was having trouble raising money for the trip. I asked one of my MBA professors who is connected in investing circles to ask, if I were to write an appeal letter, would he please send it to his contacts? He apologized, because he said there is not much money available right now because of the economy. Then he paused, and asked me where I was flying from. When I told him, he asked me if he could help me out with flight miles to Copenhagen for the trip. I was awestruck by the offer. I hurried to tell him that I had not mentioned this to ask ... Read Full Story >>

Breakfast with Strangers

Recently, my husband and I were visiting a dear aunt in another state. My aunt cannot leave the house.  She loves hamburgers and fries, but only eats them when they somehow find their way to her through kind visitors.  While we were visiting, we told her that we would go get breakfast and bring back her favorites upon our return.  At the restaurant, we were seated at a booth and ordered.  The booths had very low dividers, so people could overhear conversations or converse back and forth with neighboring tables.  Next to us was a family of four: a mother, father, daughter and son.  The boy was younger, so he was kind of busy, moving around, smiling when our eyes met, and just generally sweet.  We started a conversation with him and found that this was the first day of school for his slightly older sister, so they were celebrating by going to ... Read Full Story >>

A Rare Hug

I was on my way to an appointment, and saw the beggar standing on his corner as usual.I didn't have any money and he was talking to somebody else anyway, so I passed him by.   On my way back from the appointment I passed him on his corner again. This time he asked me for money. I told him, "Sorry, I don't have any coins on me."   He replied, "I wouldn't mind the bills!" And he laughed a little, saying he was just making fun.    I laughed too and reached out to rub his shoulder and arm. Then I turned to be on my way, busy with my thoughts.   But he called something after me. I stopped when I realised he had said, "That felt really good ... that you touched me. It happens so seldom!"   I turned, ran to him, and gave him a big hug, which made both of us smile like idiots.   He ... Read Full Story >>

Three Feet of Snow and a Very Kind Neighbor

It's no secret that we've had some pretty crazy weather in the Maryland area this past winter. We had 15 inches of snow during one month followed by 28 more inches. Whenever it snowed like that, I packed my things up and stayed at my mom's house, both to help her with shoveling and for the ease of getting my car out of the driveway to get to work rather than attempting it from my mountain side driveway. I did about 4 hours of shovelling one day and only managed to dig us out of the house and a small walking path to and around 3 sides of my car.  To make better headway the next day, I set the alarm and got out there preparing to do the necessary 3 or 4 shovelling rounds before being able to relax and watch the Super Bowl. My whole body was in pain from the ... Read Full Story >>

Post It Note Blitz

Today I did a post-it note blitz - on public toilet mirrors, outside a public parent's room, and on the back of park benches in the park. I wrote the notes on the run of the mill yellow post it notes saying "Be the Kindness in the World Today" "A smile is free" "Your smile looks great on you" "I'm glad you are reading this, you are a blessing to our world" It was one of those days that I didn't feel like putting myself out there, and perhaps on those days its important that I do :-)

Small Gestures in the Workplace

One day, while I was walking to work, I decided to bring some flowers that I had picked from my garden that morning. I came across a random stranger, and was inspired to give the bunch to him with a smile card.  Struck by the sense of joy I felt from giving flowers to another person, and maybe brightening his day, I wanted to do it again. When I got to my office, I had the idea of anonymously leaving flowers around the workplace. Sometimes, the impersonal atmosphere of the building where I work numbs my spirits a little. It's a nice building, with great light, but it just feels a little sterile sometimes. I figured lots of people might feel the same way, so why not put a little beauty there, and throw in an inspirational quote while I'm at it? After all, who doesn't like flowers? So, for the past month, I've been putting flowers ... Read Full Story >>

Drive-Up Smiles

  I received a package of new Smile cards and decided that I would focus on people who work in drive-up businesses.     My first act was at the drive-up window of my bank. It was a new person I had never seen before. I thought to myself, 'This is kind of hokey but I'll try it.' So, I put a Smile card underneath the check I was cashing. She counted out my money and then, with a big smile on her face, inquired about the card. We had a nice chat and I gave her some additional cards to pass on. That was how my day started.   The next day I had worked late and stopped by a fast food restaurant drive-up window to collect a salad. A clear voice over the intercom took my order and I put a Smile card underneath my payment. The young girl smiled and asked me ... Read Full Story >>

Sixth Graders and the Smile Deck

I teach a sixth grade religion class, and today I played the Smile Deck game with my students.  They each left with two kind acts to complete and were very enthusiastic as I handed them regular Smile Cards to go along with the Smile Deck Cards.

One student was able to complete one of her acts that day itself, when class ended.  She held the door for those leaving the building, handing out Smile Cards to those who would take them.  It was uncomfortable for her at first (12 years old is an awkward age, at best), but she got the hang of it and started to enjoy her 15 minutes as 'Door Woman'!

I am excited to hear about how the other children's acts of kindness go.

I hope that my take on the ways we can “take care of God's creation” will sink into these kids, and they will carry forward the idea of embracing kindness as a meaningful part of life.

This is just the beginning for me!!  Thanks for the forum of inspiration!