Stories Matching 'Courage' Tag (58 matches)

Quiet Acts Of Kindness In Her Hour of Sorrow

I work at a Care Center where most of the people are elderly. About a year and a half ago a 59 year-old lady came to us who had cancer. She had to have her right leg amputated and she didn't have a family to take care of her after the operation. This lady was a quiet lady who mostly stayed to herself. But in the afternoons, when she was feeling well, she would go visit the other residents in the home. She would visit a lady who was blind and read to her. She would go into the room of a young girl with severe cerebral palsy and sing to her. In her quiet gentle way, she would go about the Care Center doing good. She passed away last Wednesday and after her passing, stories are coming forward of her quiet acts of kindness in her own hour of sorrow. We never know what impact ... Read Full Story >>

Taken By Surprise By A Course In Miracles

Arriving in a new city last Thursday, I had the strangest first week of graduate school. I fell and broke my leg within 48 hours of arriving there! I was really amazed by the kindness shown by my new roommmate, someone who I had only just met. "We are family now", she said when she found me lying in my room with a swollen leg, unable to move, in a strange city with no family except across three oceans. She took me to the student health center by cab to get my leg examined. The cab driver was so nice and said to me how lucky I was to have a friend like that.  After that, my roommate didn't stop helping me - she made me amazing meals and brought them to and made me comfortable despite my insistence that I could do things on my own. When I protested, "I really like helping people", she said , "I believe ... Read Full Story >>

My Experiment with Free Hug Friday

My scheduled day of kindness this week is tomorrow (yes, I’m still doing it each week, just haven’t written about them all!) but I was not sure what I would do. While catching up on some of the stories here today, I decided I will make it Free Hug Friday!  My catch phrase tomorrow any time I see someone a little down or frustrated is to say to them “Looks like someone could use a hug!” and then let them have it! I’ll certainly have to be a little careful so I don’t scare some of the people inmy office. Most of them think I am a little off anyway, so they will just add this to the list of strange things they’ve seen me do. I have noticed how much a touch or hug can mean to people, even if they don’t realize it at the time so I’m going ... Read Full Story >>

All It Takes Is A 10 Second Thought

I've been so inspired by everyone's thoughts and reflections that I thought I'd take the plunge and continue a recent practice of stepping out of my comfort zone and sharing this story. Last Friday, I was coming home late after spending time with friends andthought I'd go down to the $.99 cent pizza place.  On the way, I saw a man sitting on a random stoop.  I'd seen him before, panhandling on the stairs I walk up every day as I leave the subway running late to work, but this time I had no place to rush off to.  There was something about him, a quiet and serene demeanor, different from many of the other homeless people I had seen in NYC.  I walked past him, went to the pizza place, and those 10 seconds waiting in line was enough to practice stepping outside of my usual, familiar flow.  So with a few ... Read Full Story >>

An Opportunity to Connect, to Love

It's 5:15am at the local Starbucks.  I'm standing in line and the person ahead of me in line is putting together what seems to be a large order.     "Can I have some bagels, donuts, oh and some brownies too, along with this coffee order."   My curiosity is peaked, and she chimes to the counter person, "Thank you, the order is for the nurses at Sloan-Kettering Cancer society because they've been doing a great job taking care of my Dad."  I tend to believe that people share things in order to be self expressed, and to be heard, to have their expression recognized.     Standing in line, fiddling with my book bag, the possibility of her wanting to be heard flashed by.  I, stopped, and asked her how her father was doing.   "He's in a coma, he fell into a coma yesterday and my sister and I have been taking shifts being there with ... Read Full Story >>

Someone Will Help

Opportunity knocked on my door last January when I was given a chance to work in an other country.  It's really such a blessing! At first, it was really scary living life on my own.  But, I soon met .lots of new people. Some were good and some were bad. It was a true challenge! I met a group of friends, six boys and one girl. They were really nice. I loved their company and they were so funny! We hung out most weekends. We cooked, watched movies, chatted and shared jokes! It was amazing - until something unexpected happened! One of our group was diagnosed with kidney stones which had to be removed surgically as soon as possible. But it was not as simple as that! Our friend could not afford the surgery. He tried to get help from our other friends but they refused to help. My heart cried for him! Our  friends abandoned him just when he ... Read Full Story >>

On a Kindness Mission with my Smile Cards

My second lot of Smile Cards arrived last week, and I have been trying to think of uses for them. Today, before I headed into town for a job interview, I decided to grab a handful and try to use as many as I could throughout the day.  The weather was awful, it was pouring with rain, and I would've loved to buy umbrellas for people.  But being unemployed, I didn't have the money to spare.  So instead, I decided to think of free or really cheap ways to make people smile -- after all, even the little things count.  I knew I'd also have to deal with my shyness, or just create anonymous acts of kindness, but it was a challenge I was willing to accept! Before leaving my house, I filled a bag with some items that I no longer use and prepared to drop it off at a charity shop in town.  ... Read Full Story >>

Love Is Stronger Than Fear

My Daughter and I recently encountered, as we often do, in the Inner Harbor of Baltimore, a Homeless man, who was hunkered down for the night, under a few sleeping bags with his book and all of his belongings. We encountered him as we were walking home after dinner. We had been so hungry at dinner, after a day of touring colleges, that our eyes were too big for our stomachs and we ordered too much. The appetizer ended up being enormous, and ravenous as we were, we ate it hungrily. There was still some to spare. When our meals arrived, we picked at them, out of obligation, but decided to take the whole portions home, although we were staying in a hotel, and leaving early the next morning, and likely wouldn't have even eaten it.  As we were walking home from dinner, we passed the homeless man and he made some gesture to us, ... Read Full Story >>

A Bus-Load of Appreciation

The shuttle bus service I take to the airport is famously bad at customer service, but they are the only option for lots of travelers. I was sitting on the bus one day feeling disappointed by their shoddy service when a young soldier got on. He was in full uniform with his duffle bag across his shoulder and a ticket in his hand. But, guess what? The driver wouldn't accept his ticket!   Apparently it was "the wrong format." It was probably a military issue travel pass but because the driver didn't recognise it or it hadn't been made out properly he was not going to let the soldier travel. The soldier did not have any cash and, unbelievably, the shuttle company (via radio) would not authorize a voucher.     I was sitting pretty near the back but I could hear what was going on and I had heard enough. I stomped down to the ... Read Full Story >>

Paying-It-Forward In "The Chain Of Life"

In June 2009 the New Jersey Star-Ledger ran a series called "The Chain of Life" about kidney donation chains. These are enabled by one non-related donor giving a kidney to a recipient whose donor (usually a relative) was not compatible. That non-compatible donor then donates to someone else in the same position and thus four or six people could receive new kidneys.  I decided I could do that. I contacted the National Kidney Registry and started a six month process that ended with my donating a kidney to a doctor who had been on home dialysis for two years. I didn't know his identity until several months later when we had a very meaningful and emotional introduction. His wife donated her kidney, the same day as our surgery, to someone else, whose donor donated theirs to someone else on the other side of the country! The surgery lasted two hours; I was ... Read Full Story >>

Human Spirit Rises To Meet Japan's Tsunami

[Amidst the tragedy of the quake, tsunami and the subsequent nuclear plant explosions, the narrative of hope can often get lost. Below is an excerpt  of some truly heart warming moments of oneness that unfolded in the aftermath of the tragic Tsunami.] You can see my full note here.   Below are the some of the heart warming anecdotes that I have witnessed and heard from others ... Someone overseas called me on my cell. She said she wanted to connect to anyone who is in Japan, and so she called the country code and their own mobile number, which happened to be the same as mine. I didn't fully understand everything she said, because it was English, but I knew enough to know that she really wanted to support the Japanese people.  It really gave me so much hope.  Last night when I was walking home (since all traffic had stopped), I saw an old lady ... Read Full Story >>

Dinner With An Unexpected Friend Changed My Life

I was walking home from work on a busy city street with lots of people. I wasn't looking forward to going home and my friends weren't able to hang out with me. That's when I walked past a homeless person that I hadn't seen before. He was moving back and forth to stay warm, and very gently asking for change. He spoke so quietly I could barely hear him. Something made me stop, turn around, and walk up to him. All the while anxious thoughts whirled around in my head like, 'What do you think you're doing?' 'You're alone, it's dark out and you're a woman,'   Before I knew what I was saying I asked him if he had had dinner yet and would he like to join me at a nearby restaurant. He said he hadn't eaten and he would like to. So, he walked with me a few yards to the restaurant and held the door ... Read Full Story >>

More Kindness Inspired By A Homeless Man

  It was bitterly cold and I had been watching a homeless man make himself comfortable in a "shelter" next to a power unit on the canal bank. His "shelter" was a tarpaulin taped to the metal unit and anchored with rocks to keep the wind from blowing it away.  He had been living there for over a month in weather that often dipped below freezing. In all the times I passed that makeshift lean-to I never saw him with warm clothing or food. I knew what I wanted to do.   I was young, living at home, and when I told my parents what I wanted to do they were alarmed. I could be putting myself at risk, taking a box to a homeless person in the night time! But I knew, on some intrinsic level, that I would be safe.    I went to the grocery store and got an apple box with a solid top ... Read Full Story >>

Jamie's Story

For years I was a reporter, with five of those years covering an affluent community.  Month after month of little girl beauty contests, conservative politics and people calling for the extermination of prairie dogs wore on my soul. Then I wrote "Becoming Jamie" the story of a seven year old girl, born a boy, but aware of her own transgender status. I veiled the family, for their safety.  The photographer created an image that illustrated the girl's journey thus far to herself. We ran the story. I went back to the grind of the daily story, the details of government and sustainable business, and the thousand other stories swirling through a community. Then I got an email that I had won a prize with the press association. I had enetered only one story. I knew it was "Becoming Jamie." I called the family, to tell them the story was up for an ... Read Full Story >>

A New Family I Never Expected

18 years ago I discovered I was unexpectedly pregnant, I was on my own and in an extremely limited financial situation. I worked at a pet shop, a job I loved, but cleaning cages with unrelenting nausea was pretty awful to deal with. Having little money, and unable to keep anything down, I started losing weight instead of gaining it. There was a neighbor woman I had visited with a couple of times, and to my surprise, she started working at the pet shop too. Everyday, for lunch, she would produce large, organic salads and other very healthy meals. To my surprise she insisted that I have some of her lunch. I tried to refuse, but she was determined. Puzzled, I managed to eat, and when I admitted to everyone at work that I was pregnant, she was very excited, and kept on feeding me, despite the fact that I couldn't hold it ... Read Full Story >>

Helping a Little Girl on the Street

Her facial deformities make her look scary. She is around eight or nine years old and she begs for living.   The first time I saw her I got a fright and almost squealed. A few times after than I handed over some coins. Later, I felt annoyed with her and her parents for scaring others to get money. Eventually I thought of giving some more money or talking to her but I was worried she might become a nuisance, so I didn't. I told myself she probably wouldn't understand my language, but that was just an excuse and I felt bad about it.   Today, when I saw her sitting on the footpath counting coins, I thought she would come to my car and beg but she didn’t. I started walking home from my car but then thought maybe I could do some good here if I could overcome my inhibitions, discomfort ... Read Full Story >>

Practicing a Little Patience

I work at night in a department store. Yesterday I had a customer come to my register to order socks from our catalog. It seemed pretty clear and easy to me, but she was struggling to figure out how many 3packs she needed to order. She apologized for being so confused and told me she had a head trauma and it was taking time for her to think.

I told her not to worry and we would figure it out together. She pulled out paper and wrote down 3 and then put numbers in groups....it was really something how she worked hard to figure out 3 x 4 = 12.  That she needed 12 pairs, which was 4 packs...which I could have just told her, but I could see she needed to figure it out and feel good about it.  

In  the meantime, her husband showed up and she lost her train of thought. It took about 10 minutes to place her order, but she left feeling really good about herself and her husband thanked me profusely.

Sometimes it's hard to show patience, but it really pays off.

Fierce Love

Sometimes kindness has a ferocious beginning.

My dear friend Michael stood in line at a  grocery store. In the next line a mother had lost her temper with her screaming three year old sitting  in the cart seat. To everyone's shock the woman began slapping the little boy's face. Michael (a therapist) turned to  her and commanded, "Stop!" The woman jerked, as if from a trance and buried her face in her hands as she began to sob. Michael took her in his arms and held her as she cried. Then he comforted the little boy. The woman thanked him and tearfully told him about the tremendous stress she was experiencing in her life. Michael encouraged her and gave her a card to an excellent family therapist that he knew. Through her tears the mother apologized to to her little boy and hugged him and promised that she would make an appointment with the therapist.

I think most of us, at our worst, would benefit from someone stepping in to help us regain our bearings.

Michael is gone now, but the Love that he shared so generously in life continues on, rippling from those he touched to others.

On Passing Around Smiles...

One of my intentions for 2011 was to continue surrounding myself with a community of individuals that helped bring the best out in me. By the end of 2011, naturally and serendipitously, I was introduced to group of individuals that gets together one Wednesday per month to meditate and discuss a passage. After my second month of joining this great group of individuals, I sat down with a couple of the organizers, to get to know one and other better. What I assumed would be a lighthearted getting to know one and other session, became an a heartfelt discussion with presence. It felt like a therapy session. I poured my heart and soul into my confusions and challenges with figuring out my next steps with life and they listened and communicated so openly. They felt like long lost elder brothers giving me guidance. While one of them was leaving, he gave me a bag ... Read Full Story >>

A Warm Embrace And Presence

It was a usual day at the hospital. I was running around doing what I needed to get done for my patients. Then I stopped in my tracks because I could feel my cell phone vibrating in my pocket. I almost always keep my phone on. In the event of an emergency my family and friends can that way get in touch with me. It was an emergency. There was a death in my family. I couldn't move. I couldn't think. I was excused early from work that day, but came home to an empty apartment and didn't know what to do next. I cried. I didn't know if I wanted to be alone or phone my close friend. I didn't know if I should have bothered my friend. Death is a sensitive subject for some people. Different people handle it in different ways.  What does one say? What does one do? After deliberating for a ... Read Full Story >>

Top 10 Stories of 2012, Story #7 - Lessons from a Mother's Love

About eight years ago, I was a new teacher in the local women's minimum security jail, where most of the inmates are incarcerated for drug offenses. During one of my classes, a woman was crying and in a lot of pain. Her 17-year-old daughter had been recently assaulted. She wanted to see her,  but had no way to get to the hospital 30 miles away which cares for children with no health insurance. Having a daughter the same age, I asked the superintendent if it would be possible for me to drive the woman to the hospital. I was granted permission to escort her for three hours on the following Saturday.  I found some nice clothes for the mother to wear and I borrowed my friend's blue convertible. On the 30 minute drive to the hospital, we rode with the top down and sang to the songs from the disks I brought. ... Read Full Story >>

A Simple but Meaningful Act of Gratitude

Every month, I write letters to two Marines serving in Afghanistan who I don't know.  I thank them for their service to our nation. While I don't know them, I hope that they know how much I appreciate them.

Man in the Rain

One rainy night I was driving along a lonely highway. Ahead of me,  I saw a man, shoulders hunched, walking rapidly along the side of the road. It was pouring rain and I slowed down to avoid splashing him as I went by.  He misunderstood, thought I was offering a ride, and ran towards my car. He was very tall, had a full beard, and he scared me. I stepped on the gas pedal to leave quickly, and I saw the look of total dispair in his eyes.   Suddenly, all fear was gone and I backed up and unlocked my car door, praying this was not the biggest mistake in my life but somehow knowing it would be okay.   The man was a plumber. His truck had got stuck in the mud. He had been walking for miles. No one would pick him up and his wife was in the hospital in labor ... Read Full Story >>

One Candle at a Time

I've got this friend, Rachel. She's a bit older than me, with a sort of shy, but radiant smile. She's usually tan, as she loves the outdoors and spends as much time outside as possible. No matter the weather. In the winter, she'll often go for walks outside. In the summer, she'll sit in public parks strumming her guitar, reading, or napping on the grass.  She has the leisure to do these things because, suffering from multiple psychological traumas, she is unable to work. Well, unable to work in a "normal" workplace, that is. Because she does work. Her vocation is 'making' candles. She buys ready-made candles, usually the slightly translucent kind where the body of the candle will radiate the light, too. Then she puts designs on them by hand, working for hours at a time in her kitchen. She literally makes hundreds--if not a thousand--of these in a year. And then, ... Read Full Story >>

8 Real Life Super Heroes Who Saved the Day

1.  Daughter lifts a car from her dad's chest and saves his life. When Lauren Kornack, 22, found her father Alec, 52, pinned beneath his car in their garage, she knew she had to act fast. According to CNN, her superhuman powers kicked in as she lifted the 2,000 pound car from his chest and pulled him out from underneath. A trained lifeguard, Lauren immediately performed CPR in order to get his heart beating again. According to Kristen Kornacki, Lauren's sister, Alec had been working on the car when the jack holding it up slipped. Lauren found him stuck beneath the car, unresponsive. Though he suffered broken ribs, numbness and fractures, Alec suffered no permanent physical damage thanks to Lauren's astounding strength. 2.  Little boy learns the alphabet and uses it to help save father's life.  Nathaniel Dancy Jr., 5, had recently learned the alphabet at school when his father suffered a stroke and had an ... Read Full Story >>

New Yorkers 'pay it forward' After 9/11

Some New Yorkers mark the anniversary of the September 11 attacks by going to a memorial service or observing a moment of silence. For the past 10 years, Jeff Parness has been helping others. Every September, Parness brings hundreds of volunteers from New York to help another disaster-stricken community in the United States. "It was our way of saying, you know, New Yorkers will never forget what people from around the country and the world did for us in our time of need after 9/11," said Parness, a 2011 CNN Hero. "So that's how the mission started. It was just to pay forward the kindness that we experienced." Over the past decade, Parness' nonprofit, New York Says Thank You, has assisted victims of wildfires in San Diego, tornadoes in the Midwest and Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana. Many of those who receive help are so inspired that they travel across the country the next year -- ... Read Full Story >>

A Gift From Grief

On my trip to Berlin last week, the train suddenly stopped. After a couple of minutes, one of the attendants, visibly shaken, told us that somebody had committed suicide by standing in front of the train. After a couple of moments to allow space for my own sorrow, I got up and went to the attendants' cab to offer support, as a professional trained to deal with traumatized people. I was thinking of the train driver who'd basically run over the 'victim'. They told me they really appreciated my offer, but that the train company had specialists for such cases and that they were checking to see whether the driver would get relieved of duty for the remainder of the journey. But for the moment, and some two hours more, the train just stood there while paramedics, police, and train company disaster management arrived and did their job. I found that I felt bogged down ... Read Full Story >>

Family Hosts 200 Homeless People for Dinner After Daughter's Wedding Gets Called Off

When an engaged couple calls off the wedding, it is usually a time of sadness and anger. But one family in Atlanta found a way to turn a terrible situation into a beautiful one. Carol and Willie Fowler's daughter Tamara was set to get married at the Villa Christina catering hall, when the wedding was called off just 40 days before the event. Initially the Fowlers were upset to hear that the lavish gathering they had planned and paid for was not going to happen. Then they had a genius and generous idea: They invited 200 of the city's homeless to feast on the four-course meal that would have been part of Tamara's wedding reception. The Fowler family called Elizabeth Omilami from the Hosea Feed the Hungry organization for her help in getting the group together. At first Omilami thought she was being pranked! Carol Fowler said that even daughter Tamara ... Read Full Story >>

"Meet la Bestia, the Beast"

One of the few freight networks that still makes the rounds on Mexico's rugged countryside. Immigrants from Central and South America board the trains in an attempt to reach Mexico's northern border quickly. The trail is dangerous: the travelers face mutilation and death from falling off the train. Criminal gangs stalk the southernmost lengths of the network, stopping the trains in their tracks. The travelers are lucky if they are left alive. The few women that board the trains' roofs are raped and kidnapped. On the central and northern lengths of the trail, narcos are always prowling, ready to scare the travelers into surrendering their belongings. Some of them are forcibly recruited into the narcos' ranks as slave footsoldiers. Some are killed in cold blood, their bodies ditched into mass graves. They are chased by inmigration officers and federal police, who have been known to commit shameless acts of human rights ... 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 >>