Stories of Kindness from Around the World

What better way to start a journey than to tag the passengers on my flight?

What to tag them with was the next question. The kids were easy. I went out to a party supply store and picked up a variety of goodies- bubbles, mini mazes, cards, candy, notebooks and pens. It was perfect, the store had smiley face bouncy balls and smiley face bags.

But what of the adults, the day before my trip, I realized the perfect solution was in front of my eyes for weeks. For graduation, I had received a bag of smile stones. If you haven't had the pleasure of finding a smile stone, I hope you come across one. Smooth glass stones in a myriad of colours with smiley faces drawn on in permanent black.

Mid-flight a child behind came crying to her family, it was time to begin. I pulled out the toys and handed them out to her and her siblings. Then went on my way around the plane. The looks of bewilderment were great when I'd ask the parents if I could give something to their child.

By the time I got back to my seat, I had still not figured out how I'd give the adults the smiles stones anonymously. The answer was right behind me. I turned to the four kids aged 3 to 10 and asked them if they wanted to help me out. Whether they were bored or taking a liking to me because of the toys, who knows, but they said yes. Soon enough, the five of us were putting the poems in the envelopes with a smile card and three stones (always different colours). The amount of care they used was amazing. The poems and front of the smile card ALWAYS were placed to face the receiver when it was opened and no envelop has 2 or more stones of the same colour and the joy on their face when they first saw the stones will always stay with me.

1-2 hours later, the packages were ready. The kids were off. They went all over the flight with huge smiles on their faces. "Excuse me, this is for you" then running back for more.

The flight attendants LOVED them and even if no one else did, the experience was completely worth it. The kids were phenomenal and have taken stones of their own to leave as they contine their trip to Afghanistan.

Another cool part- London for some was only one stop on their journeys and the stones are about to reach all corners of the world as each person continues on their way. The lady next to me took extras so she could leave them along her trip to Kenya.

To the people who created smile stones: rock on!