Stories of Kindness from Around the World

Recently I graduated from high school, and as a gift I recieved a huge bouquet of carnations; 40 to be exact! I had so many that I didn't know what to do with them. The next weekend my niece and nephew came (ages 4 and 5) and we took every single carnation and tied a smile card to it's stem. We then went to our local Dillions Store and I gave each of them one flower at a time. I explained that these flowers would make other people smile, and then they could take the cards and do something nice for someone else! They loved the idea, but I wasn't sure if they fully grasped the idea. Furthermore, I thought that they possibly might get to shy at the last minute, but boy was I suprised! My nephew ran excitedly through the doors of the store and found the very first lady he lay eyes on! He ran up to her and handed her the flower! Her smile was so big, but his was even bigger!

In no time at all, we neared the end of our bouquet, but there were a few left. My niece took one up to an elderly lady, and then came back to me and as we were walking away she tugged on my sleeve and asked..."Did you see her smile?!" "It was really big."

We left the store with three flowers left, and went to Subway for lunch. The kids saw a woman at the counter and took a flower up to her. She smiled and turned around and said "that just made my day! Thank you guys!"

The final two flowers went to the waitresses at the restaurant! Both of which were really excited to recieve flowers. Later, as we were setting and eating our lunch, one of the waitresses came up to the kids with two giant chocolate chip cookies! She said that they were for them and that she really liked her flower! As they gobbled down the cookies my niece and nephew looked at me with the biggest chocolate covered smiles I had ever seen. My nephew said "being nice is fun!"

It turned out being a great day, not only for myself and my family, but for 40 other random people. We spread a lot of smiles, and the kids learned an important lesson in the process. In fact they can't wait until next time they get to come and visit me, they want to give out more flowers!