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 >>
- Posted by cking
- Dec 26, 2013
- 28 Comments
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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.
- Posted by caroline.s.king
- Jul 15, 2013
- 5 Comments
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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 >>
- Posted by djorn
- Jul 10, 2012
- 23 Comments
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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 >>
- Posted by cf
- May 14, 2013
- 29 Comments
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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 >>
- Posted by anonymous
- Jun 29, 2013
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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 >>
- Posted by Kathleen Toner
- Sep 11, 2013
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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 >>
- Posted by cf
- Sep 23, 2013
- 4 Comments
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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 >>
- Posted by jojo
- Sep 26, 2013
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"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 >>
- Posted by Anonymous
- Dec 4, 2013
- 6 Comments
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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 >>
- Posted by angekchik
- May 29, 2014
- 3 Comments
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We Are Not Alone
In the days after 9/11, I was on the team of chaplains assigned to Ground Zero. I worked from T-Mort, the temporary morgue on- site. In addition to praying with first responders over remains, we also helped search, and held the place of spirit during the long hours of digging. One night, several bodies were discovered in a collapsed stairwell. Another chaplain and I were standing at the rim while the recovery team- firefighters, iron workers toiled to free the bodies. Someone shouted up "We need you down here!" It was a deep hole about 10 feet down: dark, narrow, smokey. We shouted OK, but I could feel myself panic. I know they didn't mean they needed ME. They needed the help or strength of God. It was my job to hold that space. They lifted us and passed us down into that shaft. My heart was racing and I felt faint, ... Read Full Story >>
- Posted by revmindy
- Feb 18, 2015
- 5 Comments
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Beautiful Smiles
I was wandering through a fruit stand today and noticed two women walking in the store. One was leading the way, the other followed slowly with a walker. The second woman was probably in her fifties, too young for a walker, and she had the most beautiful smile.I passed them without giving it too much thought. They left the store before me, and when I left and was walking down the sidewalk, I saw them in their car. This lovely woman was sitting in the passenger's seat, smiling and laughing sweetly as she said, "I never thought it could be this hard to get in a car" -- and laughed and laughed. Amazing, I thought! And I wanted to connect with this lovely energy, so as I passed, I asked if she would like me toclo se the car door for her. She looked at me and gave me one of her beautiful ... Read Full Story >>
- Posted by mdunn1
- Mar 30, 2015
- 10 Comments
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How a community of 'KindSpringers' helped her out of depression
It feels as if I grew in one giant leap. At Sunday Assembly I spoke on a stage into a microphone in front of a group of people. For many years I have been nervous and never know what to say when even speaking with just one or two people. Sunday Assembly is like church for atheists, it’s a secular meeting. The topic was “happiness” and I spoke about Kind Spring. The group passed out my “basket of smiles”, (inspired by penny4them’s jar of gems, thank you!) with quotes about joy and happiness that I had printed out, each attached to a smile card. I urged people to go out and do an act of kindness and pass on the smile card. I spoke about how Kind Spring is a welcoming site, where, even though many people post about their religious beliefs, everyone is accepted and equally welcome. I spoke about how ... Read Full Story >>
- Posted by alisamom
- Jan 4, 2016
- 20 Comments
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Any Day is a Good day for Random Acts of Kindess
I am knitting some Christmas coasters for my fellow volunteers and paid employees at the British Heart Foundation shop, just for fun. I was hoping to finish them today but they are taking longer than I expected. I have done three of the ten I wanted to, as I was hoping to give them out tomorrow. But any day is good for a Random Act of Kindness :) I feel shy about handing them out but I will try and be courageous as I would like them to have them. :)
- Posted by jsmc10
- Dec 21, 2015
- 8 Comments
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Sharing Words You Yourself Most Needed to Hear
Today I Am grateful for the opportunity to help a friend in need. It's amazing how sometimes the advice you give is the same advice you need to hear. When that happens it's as if this friend is going through hard times for a purpose, and part of that purpose is to help you grow as a person. At the same time, perhaps the challenges you've faced and the lessons you've learned have lead you to this point and put you in a position to be of service, thus giving your own trails greater purpose. 
- Posted by Timoteo
- Dec 16, 2015
- 6 Comments
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Inspiration Around the Corner
The
re is always inspiration just around the corner! A little girl in my class has been away all week, so the kids made her a book of things she loves to cheer her up (lots of dinosaurs). I put together a little care package for her.
When I went at lunch today to drop off our parcel, I had to go down the stairs to a basement apartment. When I got there, this beautiful message was chalked on the wall beside the door. It was made by the little girl's mom. It makesme want to have an inspiring message by my door because I sure walked away with a big smile on my face after seeing it!
- Posted by Rippleffect
- Feb 6, 2016
- 11 Comments
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Amidst hurt kindness shone through
While I feel so saddened by the world and the mean-spirited people my husband and my son especially have had to deal with this week, I still believe in being kind to everyone. The little kindness I did for the elderly lady at the grocery store, and the assistance I gave someone else at the local yarn store, are moments that make my days better. Making cookies for a neighbor who got laid off was a small gesture that made him smile. 
Sometimes I would prefer to give back the meanness I get from some people, but have learned that just makes it worse. The hard part is not lashing out at those who hurt my family. That has happened too often this week to my son in particular.
Nothing to be gain by striking back, but still it saddens my heart and life at time can be wear your spirit down.
Tomorrow is another day. And another chance to make some one smile
- Posted by denysewade
- Feb 5, 2016
- 14 Comments
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A Text Message That Saved Her Life
A friend thought of an acquaintance of his the other day who he knew had not been doing well recently. He decided to send her a text message to let her know he was thinking of her and to have a nice day.
In the evening, the lady's husband called him and my friend's first thought was "Oh no, he's going to give me a hard time for texting his wife".
But instead the guy thanked him for texting his wife. Apparently she's been struggling with depression and had been thinking of killing herself that day, but the text message gave her hope.
Never underestimate the importance of a simple text message.
- Posted by Alisamom
- Jan 6, 2017
- 10 Comments
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