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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 >>

Polish your halo and pass on the kindness

By Julia Pitt Royal Gazette . com Pay it forward: polish your halo and pass on the kindness you’ve been shown Recently, someone helped a friend of mine. I was away and she was in a fix — not an emergency, just one of those situations where you could use an extra set of eyes and an alternate perspective. The helper wasn’t a relation or even a close friend but someone on the periphery who had spotted the distress and simply offered a hand. With nothing to gain for themselves, they took time out of their busy day to meet up, review the facts, offer an opinion and advice and be an additional support. It gave my friend exactly the comfort and confidence needed to make a decision and move forward. When I heard about this random act of generosity and kindness, I was truly touched and deeply grateful for their unexpected effort, especially as ... 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 >>

Half A World Away

While volunteering in India between April 2 and April 18, I experienced a smile card. Let me tell you how. The day before I left for home, Saturday April 17, I was cleaning up my office at LAICO, the training institute at Aravind Eye Hospital, and someone left me a Smile card and a beautiful poem on my desk. I was completely taken by this act of kindness. I had worked 12 of the 14 days that I had been in India and I was not sure that I had made a positive impact on those with whom I had worked. This card and poem really touched my heart and brought closure to my two weeks of work and helped me realize that I had made a difference to someone at LAICO. Then while at the Seva partner and board meetings last week, the extraordinary story came to fruition. We ... Read Full Story >>

Comment Collection, July

Yesterday around 7:30pm in the evening, I was driving down Shallowford Road trying to concentrate despite the torrent of rain; it seems that the rain kept falling harder and harder. Just as I pulled up to a signal light, I noticed three women and a little girl walking down the sidwalk in the rain. Their arms were full of groceries. In fact, between the four of them they had three umbrellas but because the three older women were carrying so many bags, the little girl could not fit under the umbrella. She was sort of walking by herself carrying her own two bags. Just as I drew my mother's attention to them, a car that had just turned pulled up beside them and handed the little girl an umbrella. Right then and there, I felt as if I was protected and had been given the umbrella. Go ... 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!!

How One DAR Chapter Is Helping Our Injured War Heroes

If you have always thought that the Daughters of the American Revolution were just a bunch of little old ladies sitting at tea with their white gloves on discussing their Patriot Ancestors, you may have to change your opinion. I am an associate member of the Elizabeth Ellington Chapter of the DAR in Bremerton, WA and this is an email I received yesterday. Ladies, Today Annie and I went to the Naval Base Kitsap (Bangor) Navy Exchange and purchased $810 worth of phone cards to be sent to our injured war heroes at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany . Our service men and women will be able, because of your generosity, to utilize a total of 2,479 hours of "talk" time with loved ones. That equates to 14,874 minutes. A total of 75 $10.00 cards and 3 $20 dollar cards were purchased and affixed with DAR phone card labels. I ... Read Full Story >>

Planting a seed

My friend and co-worker has been going through a period of difficulties in the last couple of months. I was sharing with my son all the difficulties my friend was going through.  A few days later, he called me and said the he and a few co-workers wanted to help and that a gift basket was ready along with a gift card for a food market for me to pick up and deliver.

I contacted my friend and met her at a cafe where I sponsored her dinner and presented her with the lovely gifts. She was sharing with me that she had just been thinking about me when I called her and that on her way over to the cafe she had been praying that she would find a way to have food in the house that weekend.

When she opened her card with the gift card she was blown away. I called my son to let him know that my friend was gratefully appreciative of the love poured onto her.

My son was relating this to his boss and they have decided to keep this going every month, again for my friend and then to other families. Their whole office is involved. Woo Hoo !

Couple Guys Near The BP Garage

Around where I am staying there is a BP garage. Couple of guys normally hang around behind the garage: playing games (dices) and just chat and chat, looking and admiring at passerbys. Some of the guys don’t have places to stay and are unemployed, whereva the night catches them that’s where they lay their heads. Some are bit scary, they are untidy and look more like gangsters. There is one guy among this group whom I met and most of the time we end up having a friendly chat and we greet each other always. Before I bought a car, he would voluntarily pick up my grocer, assist me when I have loads of things to carry, accompany me half way to my place when it’s late, defend me when the guys wana mugg me, make some funny moves and so forth. After all the efforts and help he sometimes refuses ... Read Full Story >>

An Unexpected Dollar

Our department took the day off and went to the ball game together as a team building activity. We had a ball (pun intended). I made sure to pack sun tan lotion, extra gum, raw almonds, a second hat and some water so I could share with those that forgot.  And some did forget, so I felt good to lend or give away what I had brought. Later during the game, a group of us made a bee-line for the concession stands as they wanted beer and some other mixed drinks.  I was drinking water so did not buy anything but I did notice that there was no tip jar for the two women manning the crowded drinks booth. When I went up later with another co-worker who ordered a margarita (and the line was snaked around the stand and outside), I saw the 2 older women behind the booth.   I pulled out ... Read Full Story >>

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.

A Clean House And an Apple Pie!

One of my dear friends is having a rough time of it, as her husband of 21 years just walked out and announced he wants a divorce.  She is working full-time while trying to raise two teenagers, and barely has time to think. I told her sister I wished there was something more we could do for her.  "Maybe there is," her sister said, with a twinkle in her eye. We went to my friend's house the other day while she was at work. Her sister has a key to get in. She cleaned up a bit, put fresh flowers on the table, and I left a freshly baked apple pie on the counter. I also put a meal of pot roast and vegetables into her crock pot and plugged it in. Then we left. She called me later that night and told me how much that meant to her. She and ... Read Full Story >>

The Slow-Down Culture

It's been 18 years since I joined Volvo, a Swedish company. Working for them has proven to be an interesting experience. Any project here takes 2 years to be finalized, even if the idea is simple and brilliant. It's a rule. Globalize processes have caused in us (all over the world) a general sense of searching for immediate results. Therefore, we have come to posses a need to see immediate results. This contrasts greatly with the slow movements of the Swedish. They, on the other hand, debate, debate, debate, hold x quantity of meetings and work with a slowdown scheme. At the end, this always yields better results. Said in another words: 1. Sweden is about the size of San Pablo, a state in Brazil. 2. Sweden has 2 million inhabitants. 3. Stockholm, has 500,000 people. 4. Volvo, Escania, Ericsson, Electrolux, Nokia are some of its renowned companies. Volvo supplies the NASA. The first time I was ... Read Full Story >>

You Can Be My Neighbor Just As You Are

As a youngster, there was nothing I liked better than Sunday afternoons at my grandfather's farm in western Pennsylvania. Surrounded by miles of winding stone walls, the house and barn provided endless hours of fun for a city kid like me. I was used to neat-as-a-pin parlors that seemed to whisper, “Not to be touched!” I can still remember one afternoon when I was eight years old. Since my first visit to the farm, I'd wanted more than anything to be allowed to climb the stone walls surrounding the property. My parents would never approve. The walls were old. Some stones were missing, and others were loose and crumbling. Still, my yearning to scramble across those walls grew so strong that finally, one spring afternoon, I summoned all my courage and entered the living room, where the adults had gathered after Sunday dinner. “I, uh. I wanna climb the stone walls,” I said hesitantly. Everyone ... Read Full Story >>

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 >>

What Nelson Mandela Taught Me About Empathy

What Nelson Mandela Taught Me About Empathy Years ago, in 2007, I visited Sierra Leone to work with an organization, iEARN, which was using technology to help youth recover from the gruesome war which had left millions of lives destroyed. As I listened to stories, and then some more, as part of a project that we were doing to record peoples’ lives, I became emotionally distraught and confused, and angry at the perpetrators at the same time. However, there was an interesting demographic of people that I had mixed feelings towards, even compassion – child soldiers. Those youth who were brainwashed or forced into killing their brethren - their parents, grandparents, siblings – and becoming drugged and desensitized during the process. I wondered to myself, what was the reason for wars, in general, and how do people heal from such trauma? The Truth and Reconciliation Commission was ongoing to help bring forgiveness, ... Read Full Story >>