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Peacehunter's Kindness Challenge Memoir

It is the second day of the kindness of challenge that I am participating in.  Today's challenge asks us to reconnect with an old pal and better yet express our gratitude for them. I decided to write this poem and share it with all of my friends, past, present, and future: To You, From Me...Ode to Friends & Family & Soulkin Some of you have known me since before my birth,some of one have known since my breath was first . Most of you have came to me thru moments where we grew ,and I am ever so grateful for everyone of you. Whether from my past or present ,a memory or a lesson my journey would have been lacking without you in it. To the ones who grew me ,Thank you .To the ones who see right thru me ,Thank you. To those I`ve hurt and you loved me anyhow ,Thank you .To those ive been hurt ... Read Full Story >>

I will never forget

A few years ago (when I was in college) and comically poor, I had just made up with my parents and was headed home for the first time in a few years. I'd dropped out and was working for t-mobile and made a decent life supporting myself but a few months prior to  I had a meltdown and realized I had to go back to school. I caved, called my dad, and asked for help. Before I started driving the ~9hrs home, I decided to stop at the grocery store to grab some chips, red bull, etc. It was a few days before Christmas, and I was super down on myself about how poor I was, how my parents were paying for me to head up, how I felt like such a waste, and how I felt like I'd failed to support myself. !I went in, grabbed some stuff, then realized I was ... Read Full Story >>

Dontaing a Hotel Room To A Needy Stranger

I decided a few months ago that I was going to treat myself to a 4-day getaway from Los Angeles and visit Chicago. I turned in some long-saved frequent flier miles for the airplane ticket, but had to shell out cash I really couldn't afford for the hotel. I found a travel website where a discounted promotional 3-night stay was purchased from a recently opened hotel. About three weeks before the trip, I had to regretfully cancel and only then realized the room, while transferable to another person, couldn't be changed to a later date and wasn't refundable. For the next two weeks I tried selling it on Craig's list with no success. Five days before the "big weekend" I gave up trying to recoop any money and decided I'd contact some acquaintances who live in Chicago and offer someone a free "staycation". After trying a handful of people all of ... Read Full Story >>

Soccer Team's Gift

Today, my family was given the opportunity to do an act of kindness. My son's soccer team was invited to a home for children with complex physical disabilities to help celebrate the 14th birthday of one of the residents. This boy is from Burundi, Africa where soccer is very popular.

All the children got wheeled out to the back yard and my son's team played an exhibition game for them to watch. The team gave the birthday boy a team jersey and a birthday card signed by all the players. We all got to meet the boy's family and have a tour of the home.

It was a gift for everyone involved - the birthday boy and his family, the soccer team, my son, my husband and I. I left there with such a feeling of warmth and love and pride in our boys.

That feeling stayed with me through the rest of the afternoon and shone through in all of my interactions - with the check out person at the grocery story, the man walking his dog on the street and the old friend I ran into in the supermarket.

I was even inspired to buy and leave a box of raisinets and a smile card on a windshield of a car parked in the supermarket parking lot.

Food For Thought

“For Attractive lips, speak words of kindness.
For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people.
For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry.
For beautiful hair, let a child run their fingers through it once a day.
For poise, walk with the knowledge that you never walk alone.
People, more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed. Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, you will find one at the end of each of your arms.
As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands, one for helping yourself and the other for helping others.”

― Sam Levenson

Learning The Homeless Man's Story

On my way home I saw a homeless guy who lives in his car. I have driven by him many times without paying much attention. He seemed okay with his place and his anonymity. 

But last night I stopped, I introduced myself and asked him about himself. 

I'm somewhat embarrassed to report that his story surprised me in that he was a regular guy who had been gainfully employed in the area for many years in a very respectable career. I don't know what I thought his background was. 

I too often judge on appearances. I was prepared to give him some money but it became clear money was not a problem for him. He was simply happy to have someone stop, engage him in conversation and share some stories about local politics. 

I am a more educated person for having stopped and I now know a nice guy in the neighborhood.

Never too late to say I love you!

I could not make it home for my Father's 80th birthday, because of  some health challenges I'm having. Instead, I completed, using a template on Word, and highlighters, a "fun"ky art project, listing 80 things I appreciated and loved about my father.

We were never really close...and this act was healing for both of us. Miraculously, it has shifted how we see each other and our relationship.

Inviting Everyone

Every Thanksgiving a lot of families gather around a table full of food and give thanks for the blessings we have. Starting many years ago my family learned to spread the blessings to others not only on Thanksgiving but for every holiday. Back when I was young I always remembered people I didn't know showing up at Thanksgiving, Christmas, about any holiday! I learned later on the tradition my family started years ago that we still partake even today. Every holiday that my family and I celebrate we challenge ourselves for each family member to invite someone who doesn't have somewhere to go on the holiday. Sometimes we have tons of people and sometimes not too many. Our tradition includes taking pictures and looking over the pictures sometimes we cant even remember the names of everyone in the picture! At Thanksgiving yesterday I had invited a neighbor who I know didn't have anywhere to ... Read Full Story >>

Charting gratitude!

Bought blank charts yesterday and my sister, my niece and I filled our charts with gratitude :) It was a fun experience as we all sat together and wrote down all the things we are grateful for. My niece has fullest chart so far, she is 11 :)

Coffee and Kindness

I went into a coff​ee shop for coffee and a bagel. I noticed the woman in front of me ordered coffee and a bagel and asked how much it cost and then said just coffee please.

I thought about it after I sat down and went over to the woman and gave her some money and asked her to get what she wanted. She got it and gave me the extra money back with a note saying she was a massage therapist and she wanted me to call her for a free message.

She said she hoped I called her because she wanted to see me again and that I had made her day. She made my day too.

Grumpy Turned Smiley

You know what? I think that working on gratitude and my spiritual practice is TRULY helping me to be more patient, to smile, and to appreciate those who support me. Here's my example: My wife was upset with me this morning and I was already sped up and trying to get to work. I managed to acknowledge that she had good reason to be upset, and rather than pout like I sometimes do, I smiled and thought "this is an opportunity to be patient and enjoy my morning with her anyway." Although, I didn't want to get groceries, I decided we should go together and make the best of it. When I got to the store 2 separate employees were cheerful and friendly to me. I gave them my full attention and smiled back, even though I was having a challenging morning and needed to get to work. I'm grateful that I took ... Read Full Story >>

Works in mysterious ways

As a young man, there was a special trip I had really wanted to take, but it cost $50 and I didn't have the money. A friend of mine who was doing things for his church, said I could earn $50 doing yard work and invited me along.

When to my total surprise in the process of cleaning up the fall leaves in the parking lot, I found of all things...a $50 bill there on the ground under the leaves I was raking! I was totally astounded!

Gratitude told me the best thing to do was donate the $50 I was to earn for my work, back to the church instead. It was my first exposure to "pay it forward". From then on, I have "paid it forward" with random acts of kindness for others ever since. The heart warming feeling of helping others "mysteriously" is better than anything I know of. :)

Turn Around Compliment

I remember back one of the last few years at a renaissance faire. I had spent about 5 years working a booth across from a wonderful comedian and actor. His name was Moonie, he was absolutely amazing, and his skit was done using nothing but gestures and noises instead of words. I remember watching his shows and always being entertained. Even when he was having a bad day, the audience wasn't cooperating, his juggling or tight-rope skills weren't as sharp as he would have liked, he always managed to keep things fun, funny, lively, and fresh. That's a very hard thing to do considering I watched him literally do the same skits, gags, and jokes for 5 years several times a day, each weekend. When I heard it would be his last year performing at the faire, I had wanted to thank him for all the amazing shows he had done on ... Read Full Story >>

Food For The Homeless

I was walking to work today, running later than usual because Sima kept me out late (smile) and it was exceptionally cold at 22 degrees. The homeless were out of site due to the cold weather. I approach the Metro station and passed a homeless man asking me if I have any food. I continue walking, but was happy to see him asking for food rather than money. I did what my grandfather would do, I bought him breakfast. I walked over to McDonalds and asked for the Sausage, egg and cheese biscuit, a hash brown and Juice (I was not going to assume how he liked his coffee) I walked back 2 blocks to the Metro station in search of the man.

I found him and said 'here is your breakfast".
He responded with "open the bag....what is it ?"
"Sausage, egg and cheese" I said
"take it out of the bag" he says
So I did and handed it to him.

The best part of the morning was turning around and seeing a young women who had passed him up earlier, smiling. I think it might be contagious.

Somebody Tagged Me!

"Katy, please come to the front desk. Katy, you have a package at the front desk." Immediately my sensors were on. Package? Why do I have a package? Did I order something? Did my mom send me something? Maybe it's from one of my clients. They might have mailed their paperwork in using priority mail. But they wouldn't have called me over the intercom. Hmmmm, a package. Wait a minute.........could it be........is it...did they.... As I approached the front desk Sabrina and Tatiana sat comfortably in their chairs in front of their computers. Nothing was out of the ordinary. They were focused on their tasks at hand and barely noticed me approaching, a smile already planted on my face. "You called me" I said, somewhat suspiciously. For an instant I became unsure that there even was a package there waiting for me, maybe I was confused. Sabrina turned to Tatiana. ... Read Full Story >>

Job Interviews and Car Breakdowns!

I was visiting a friend of mine in the SF Bay Area, and we were driving off to dinner when we saw two people walking on the opposite side of the street, and ostensibly trying to flag down cars. No one was stopping, so we took a u-turn and pulled up beside them. A woman, clearly relieved that someone had pulled over, says, "Our car just broke down, and I'm late for an interview, and it's really near by -- could you guys please drive me there?!"

She seemed sincere and her story sounded legitimate, so we picked her up. As we were driving, she was mentioning how much she needed this job, and how thankful she was that we had picked her up. She also said, "And I just couldn't believe that no one would stop for us. As we were trying unsuccessfully to flag people down, I was telling my friend that they just don't know what they're missing out on -- they would feel so good for having helped someone in need!"

We dropped her off, and it just so happened to that we had just received a bunch of smile cards from you, and so when we gave her one, she was so excited about it and took 15 more!

As your motto says, Kindness really is contagious!

MIT Smiles

For the MIT class of 96 reunion weekend, we plan to create a massive ripple of smile cards around the city of Boston and Cambridge -- our own version of an MIT hack! Press will on the hunt for acts of compassion but it'll all be anonymous, so let's see what happens.

See our brochure and hope you can spread the joy in your colleges too!

Just Another Day At Work

I am going to inlist all of my employees to start a revolution of kindness. I am going to pass out the smile cards during our next all office meeting.

I had someone perform an act of kindness that I would consider a miracle. I was the only sibling unable to attend my brothers wedding out of town because financially It would not be feasible because I am rasing six children on my own.

Anyway, one of the physicians I worked for shared my "poor me" story with a family member and a week later just days before the wedding a stranger showed up with a card and $500.00 that said pack your bags and be with your family.

Now I realize this was an amazingly generous act but it will never be forgotten and I will tell it forever and encourage as many people as I can to do something nice for a stranger!

Keep up the smiles!!

My Neighbor Athena

As neighborhoods go children come and grow ... some leave some stay.

A new neighbor is always call for speculation..

Me .. I always look to see if they have kids toys.  If they do its just a matter of time when I will meet them.

Newest amongst our neighbors is Athena!  She's a real delight!  Single handedly, she seems to have brought our neighborhood alive.  She has one child and she has managed to get other parents to open doors and let their kids out.  Our neighborhood once again is alive..as it was when I was a kid and everyone had 4-5 kids.

So today, I appreciate ... my neighbor Athena.

Top 10 Kindness Stories of 2011

For the first time last year, we featured a top ten list of stories published by our members in 2010 and it was very well received, so we decided to do it again and compile this year's top ten kindness stories of 2011 to share the inspiration!  1. Today You, Tomorrow Me During this past year I’ve had three instances of car trouble: a blowout on a freeway, a bunch of blown fuses and an out-of-gas situation. [...] Each time, when these things happened, I was disgusted with the way people didn’t bother to help. I was stuck on the side of the freeway hoping my friend’s roadside service would show, just watching tow trucks cruise past me. The people at the gas stations where I asked for a gas can told me that they couldn’t lend them out "for safety reasons," but that I could buy a really crappy one-gallon can, ... Read Full Story >>