Stories of Kindness from Around the World

I always try to be kind where I can and it usually comes reasonably easily to me to be kind to strangers or semi-strangers. I’ve discovered that it seems to be harder for me to be kind to the people who are closely related to me.

I like spending time with my grandparents, who live only 5 minutes away from me, but I sometimes find it stressful and challenging. At their age (they are over 75 years old) they seem to have accumulated a lot of resentment and negativity although they were not like this before. My grandma seems to say negative things about others at any opportunity and my granddad gets immensely stressed and hyper and highly strung about the simplest of things.

Last week I visited them a couple of times, and ended up feeling really stressed myself at the end of each visit although there were some good moments.

I was away at university, so I am home after over a year.  They seem to have really aged in this time and their life seems to be different. Some people they used to talk to every day have moved to different cities to be with their children.  They have been calling me up every day to find out when I’m going over to visit! This is especially strange coming from my granddad who is usually as non-emotional and non-sentimental as you can imagine!

I decided today to put aside my own feelings, and try visiting them for at least a short while every day. I can see that they really want me there, and I know just being there for elderly people adds something special to their life.

Sometimes it is easier for me to volunteer at a centre for seniors rather than spending time with my grandparents but I have decided to try and be there for them as much as I can even if its not the easiest thing for me.