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Sharing Our Home With Children In Need

My husband and I have been hosting children in need of orthopedic surgery from Belize since 1993.  Our local Rotary district and Shriner's Hospital in St. Louis provide the air fare and medical care.  Some say that we are so wonderful to be host parents...maybe, but we are the ones who are blessed to have the privilege to care for these darling children. 

Our children have had the opportunity to see the world in a different view than most of their peers and we are all grateful for being chosen to share our home with others less fortunate. Now that that they are adults, our three children host these children too.

If you live within a few hours from a hospital, you too can help others with your immeasureable time and talent (and there are always other experienced volunteers to back you up if needed).

Giving Away Flowers is Addictive

I love to surprise people. I like to start things with a "bang" and finish them with another "bang" usually related with acts of kindness.

This year on my last meeting as a chair of the PTA, I offered each member of the team a rose and a card.

Though they know me by now I guess I can still surprise them with unusual surprises from time to time.

The other day I gave a chocolate and a smile card to a charity worker, who seemed quite puzzled ...

Today I gave a rose and a card to a lady that I know who has been working very hard.

Giving flowers is lovely, the only danger is that it is highly addictive.

;-)

A Kindness "Chain Reaction" in a Traffic Jam

My 17 year old granddaughter is an accomplished flutist.  She recently gave a farewell recital to her friends and family at her high school in Chicago, which was followed by a homemade buffet supper.  After the recital, she had a 3 hour drive home with her mother and sister.  They decided to load up the car with the left-over food from the recital, which included barbequed sandwiches and cream puffs.  They packed the food on plates which they placed in zip-lock bags. On the drive back, they stopped to give the zip-lock bags to homeless people along the way.  At one junction, there was a traffic jam even though the lights were green.  My granddaughter decided to run through the cars to take a plate to a person on the side walk.  As she ran back, some of the other cars started to honk their horns. The lights had already turned red, so my daughter ... Read Full Story >>

Southerly Winds Sweep In Smile Cards

Yesterday, I gave out my first Smile Cards!

There was a very strong, gusty southerly wind in town. While driving, I noticed some empty trash cans in the street. I stopped at the first one I encountered, placed it upside-down beside the curb (hoping it would not blow into the street again) and placed a Smile Card under it.

Then I drove on.

Talk about anonymous-- the recipient probably had no idea what a Smile Card is, who put it there, or even why it was there! I did this twice more on my way home from town, and it felt great! :)

Helping Hands In A Busy Diner

We were on the road yesterday and stopped for breakfast at a little diner where one employee - perhaps the owner - was the waiting staff, cook, and cashier!

Moved by a Meaningful Act of Kindness

Our extended family had spent a beautiful vacation together last summer. I had rented a beach house from a woman and before we left, we all signed the guest book thanking her.   Well, it turned out to be the last time the whole family was together.  My father in law passed away this May rather suddenly.  One of my sisters-in-law asked me some time ago if I could write to the woman whose house we stayed in and ask if she could send us a photocopy of our "guestbook" comments.  She said she had never gotten to read what her father wrote. I wrote a letter to the woman and didn't think about it afterwards. You won't believe it - today a package arrived in the mail and not only did this angel make copies of our comments for all the siblings, she framed the original page with just my father ... Read Full Story >>

A Simple Outdoor Thank You

I have a friend who has been treating me to breakfast recently, and I wanted to find a way to repay her kindness.  Her treats have been helpful since my husband has been unemployed for months, and money is tight.  I came up with an inexpensive and effective way to let her know how much I appreciate her kindness. 

I called and asked whether she likes egg sandwiches.  Hearing her affirmative enabled me to share my plan: to make English muffin sandwiches with bacon, egg, and cheese, and take her to the park to eat them together.

We had a great time at the park.  I picked her up early on a Saturday morning and brought along my little doggies, whom she loves.  She thoroughly enjoyed eating and being outside in the sunshine, and my two doggies where the icing on the cake.  We walked them all around the park and received a lot of pleasant attention.

I am delighted that I found an inexpensive way to give back to my friend, while also enjoying the experience myself.  In fact, we plan on returning to the park for more fun again in a few weeks.

Balloon On A Kindness Journey

I finally did it! I am so happy! 

I've had this idea for a while but I didn't have the guts to actually go through with it - until today.

I bought 10 helium filled balloons, drew a smiley face and wrote the date they were released on each them. I had set up another e-mail account for the project. I wrote the e-mail address on Smile Card and attached them to the balloons.

Then I took them outside and released them into the air. I hope to get some awesome stories back in return.

Kindness Begets Kindness

I was gifted with a wonderful opportunity last night. One of the people in our Facebook neighborhood group posted some pillows for sale that I knew my youngest daughter would love, so I requested to buy them from her. She only wanted $4.00, which I thought was very reasonable for the 4 pillows. We set up the porch pickup for later in the evening. When I got there, I put a $20 in her mailbox and sent her a message that I didn't have change (true, though had I really wanted to I could have gotten it), so to treat herself and her daughter to a little something. Once she discovered what I did, she messaged me back, offering to put the change under her mat for me to pick up. I asked her to just pay the kindness forward sometime, and that would be the only 'change' I need. She promised ... Read Full Story >>

Paying It Forward On The Ski Slopes

My husband and I were excited to take a day off from work to ski Winter Park and then continue on to Grand Lake to snowshoe for the rest of our anniversary weekend this past winter.  We arrived at Winter Park with discount coupon in hand, but to my surprise, the clerk pushed it back my way stating that it was not valid on this particular day.  The discount was to buy two tickets for $50 each.  Being very disappointed I asked how much a regular ticket would cost, and she said $94!  Needless to say, I was very unhappy. As I waited for my husband to return, the universe was lining me up for some wonderful kindness.  A mother and her daughter approached me asking if we needed tickets.  They were on a band trip and found out that the daughter could not ski due to an injury.  As a ... Read Full Story >>

Helping Others Heals Ourselves

College was the best of times and the worst of times for me. I met the best friends of my life, had unimaginable experiences, and traveled to new places, but I also folded under more stress than I ever had to deal with before. As a result of bad grades, bad study skills, and pure burnout, I ended up being asked to take a semester off at the end of the first semester of my senior year. All the friends I had made were going to graduate and all I knew was that I wouldn't be graduating with them. So I ended up going back home to live with my father and stepmother. To their credit, they were very cool about me coming back. I felt their support from the moment I walked in the door and they refused to let me feel like a failure. No matter how much they ... Read Full Story >>

Harvesting Kindness From An Orange Tree

I have an orange tree that keeps giving and giving. 

I wanted to use my smile cards, so I picked about 60 oranges, divided them up among ten bags or so and taped one of the smile cards on each bag. 

Then I went around my neighborhood leaving these bags of freshly picked, juicy sweet oranges by the doors of my neighbors. 

I hope they'll enjoy them.

Babies on Planes

The flight that I was on had these two babies less than a year old, probably twins, who were howling loudly. They were probably uncomfortable with their first flight. Everyone in the plane was disturbed with the loud crying. The poor parents were having a really really tough time and didn't know what to do to help the kids calm down. Both the mother and father stayed peaceful with the babies.
 
Even though almost every passenger on the plane was disturbed, no one said anything which to me was a sign of supreme patience and kindness of strangers that goes unnoticed. I want to thank all of you who have a large heart and stay patient and tolerant when facing such issues in public places. When the flight landed, I went and patted the father's arm and told him that I thought that both of them were wonderful parents. He laughed and thanked me for the compliment. His laughter made my day!

 

Thoughts on Simple Living

On this eve of the 21-Day Simple Living challenge I'm sitting in reflection of what the term simple means to me. Over the past two+ years I've taken step after step, some conscious others not at all, towards simplifying my life. As such I've stepped into a much slower, much more mindful day-to-day existence although it's often I step back into the busy and faster pace that I once knew. I believe Duane shared on a few Awakin calls ago that in simplifying we have the opportunity to realize what really matters most to us. That also has shown truth for me, as I stepped into forming Wild Dream Walks, an organization that uses walking as a tool to connect community and lead people down the path of what matters to them most. This alone has given me the opportunity to serve from my heart for many people. This year I created ... Read Full Story >>

A Snack That Turned Into Balloons

Often we do little acts of kindness and can’t really know what happens next… the people who benefit from the act return to their lives and we return to ours!  Our paths may never cross again.  But that’s not the case when a member of HelpOthers does a kind act to another member of HelOthers!  Here we can chart the ripples as we guide the kindness on its way!  Here’s one such story. You may have read Aurelia’s post about making Chex Mix for her family, or Bluebell’s post about receiving a snack from a friend in the US.  Well I sent some Karmabucks to Aurelia to find out more about her amazing snack and she offered to send some to me if I was based in the US.  Unfortunately I’m not, I live in the UK but luck would have it that I was off to America for a company event last ... Read Full Story >>

When Kindness Doesn't Need Any Words

On 'Pay-it-Forward' Day, our family knew we wanted to pick up someones tab at the grocery store but we didn't know what we would say to them.

We took the kids and told our oldest to find someone checking out. I felt drawn to the first man I saw, we all agreed this was the one. It was a family with two small children. They had A LOT of items. Still not knowing what to say I went to the cashier when she rang their last item, gave her my card and told her we were paying.

The mother holding the baby was confused and handed  her welfare card to the cashier, her husband signaled to her to put it away. We didn't have to say anything, the couple was deaf. We hugged and cried and left the store. It was a moment we will never forget.

An Extra Dose of Compassion at the Hospital

Today I met an old lady when I was in hospital. I was done with my check-up and I was standing in medicine counter of the hospital to get my medicinal receipt and medicines.  I saw that the old lady was sitting in a nearby chair and waiting for something. She seemed a little distraught so I asked her if she was okay.

She told me that she was waiting for her son who was tied up with some personal work and he had told her that he could come back in a few hours. She said that she was feeling faint and tired. I rushed to the nearby hospital cafeteria and bought her some breakfast. I then got her prescription for her and paid for her medication along with mine. 

She had the breakfast and she was happy now. She also had the tablet and thanked me.

I was happier for showing kindness to her.

Festival Sweets For Strangers

This Diwali, I planned to celebrate the festival by doing some kind acts. I emailed few colleagues to join me however all were busy with festival celebration. I also had enough work and a meeting got scheduled on the Diwali day itself hence i had to visit office. I was thinking it won't be possible but then I got an idea of distributing sweets right near office. Looked like a good idea but I had not made any full fledged plans. When I reached office I already started feeling bad for security and kitchen staff who were working on holiday, so they got tagged. Around lunch time, I wanted to go and purchase sweets when I thought of buying pizza for lunch, along with giving sweets to pizza hut workers, who were also at work on holiday. This was pretty exciting as young boys n girls work at pizza hut and i was ... Read Full Story >>

Finding That Positive Note

My step-son is going through an extremely difficult time in his life and is battling many personal issues.   He calls his father several times a day, often consumed by sadness and negativity, sometimes near his breaking point. Trying to be supportive and non-critical takes it's toll on us all, but we keep trying.    This morning on our drive to work I asked my husband to try ending the telephone conversation with his son by simply saying, "Now, tell me something good about today".     Some days that might be an easy thing to do, other days it may be nearly impossible. But even if the only thing he could can up with to say is, "You were there for me again today, Dad," that would at least give him something positive to focus on.    Tonight, I heard my husband say to his son, "Okay, now let's end on a positive note. Tell me ... Read Full Story >>

Just A Simple Thank You