Stories of Kindness from Around the World

The first stop on my nearly 25 mile bicycle ride today was the post office. I had four packages with Smile Cards to mail out, so I was already in a pretty good mood:). Cathy, who is one of the kindest and sweetest people I've met, is the postal worker who seems to help me out almost every time. She said, "it's always good to see you."

I was carrying a sandwich baggie with 2 peanut butter cookies that I had made the previous night. I asked if she liked peanut butter cookies and she said, "of course!" I offered them to her and she gladly accepted. Then I thought, wait...I have some heart pins in my bag. I took one out and gave it to her. She was so excited and couldn't stop smiling.

There was a customer next to me, who gladly accepted my offer of a heart pin, too. I told them that the pins had traveled a long way to be with them. As I left I could hear them, as they continued to talk about how wonderful that experience was. It seems to me that events like that should not be out of the ordinary. And they're not...sometimes we just need to look deeper. As is always the case, the kindness rebounded.

About 16 miles into my trip I was getting really thirsty. Of course, I didn't bring any water and it was pretty hot out. I stopped and knocked on the doors of several homes, but no one answered. Finally, at the fifth house a young man came to the door. I asked, "do you mind if I get some water from your garden hose?" "Go ahead," he said. So I turned on his hose, wet down my face and got a refreshing drink of water.

That brought me back to childhood when we were constantly drinking from the garden hose. Why'd we stop doing that? As I left his home, I placed a heart pin on his car where he would be sure to see it..