Stories by rudrick (3 matches)

This is Love

Sometimes it is the witnessing of kindness and love has the most powerful effect. One time, while waiting for a procedure in the hospital waiting room, I saw something amazing happen. A man and woman were there together - the man was in a wheelchair, sunken, pallid, crumpled into himself. He had a bottle of oxygen next to him, and was sitting like someone who had had all his strings cut. Next to him, his wife had a little travel guitar out and was strumming softly. She started singing a song to him in almost a whisper, and he joined in. Their song was barely heard, but his visage changed. He seemed to be able to draw in a breath, and as they sang together, the light of life came back into his eyes. His head became erect, no longer hanging down. You could see his shrunken chest start expanding. This was a ... Read Full Story >>

1737 Reads

Moment of Pure Joy

There was a wonderful child at a retreat at camp Chrysalis. Saturday morning at breakfast I sat with her and her family. She seemed fascinated when I was speaking. So I started to sing to her and her attention was absolutely riveted. In my best voice, and pretending that I was perhaps her dad singing her a Christmas song, I started singing Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. For a moment, I had never sung better in my life. The only thing I wanted to do was to be smiled at in joy by the two and a half year old girl, in pigtails, and of course just a little bit running out of her nose. After I finished her mom turned toward me and said, "if you could only do that all day long I would be fine with that. She just loves when grandpa sings to her too." Well Sunday at breakfast I ... Read Full Story >>

921 Reads

A Gift at the Grocery Store

Years ago, I was a house parent for emotionally and physically abused youth. These were children with histories of abuse that were almost unthinkable. We all went to the grocery store to get the essentials, but as it was close to Christmas, several of the kids grabbed extra things to make into presents, unbeknownst to me.

Well, when I got to the register, the house's $150 budget for food suddenly rang up as over $250. I asked the boys to put back their items are we could not afford it. Suddenly, a woman behind us handed the cashier a hundred dollar bill and said that no child should experience Christmas without a present. I thanked her profusely, and a few of the kids did too. It was a time that I was on the other end of the kindness counter.

739 Reads



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