Stories of Kindness from Around the World

I often spend time thinking about my friends and family and wondering what special little thing I could get or do that would let them know they are loved and cared for. It is fun to do these things anonomously but they count just the same or maybe more if they know it was me who was thinking of them. I know this because it just happened to me.

Just last week I was showing an apartment on the 2nd floor of our home to three very excited twenty something, young adults. I showed them the place and then left them alone up there to talk amoungst themselves about the possibilities for them regarding the apartment. They are  local family people of which two of them are elementary school teachers and the third is a buyer for a small bookstore/cafe right around the corner from our home. They were teaming up to share an apartment together -- it was the first time they would be living on their own since college.

A few minutes later I met with them again and they enthusiastically discussed how this seemed like the perfect place for them.  I told them how it felt right for me as well -- they seemed like such nice folks and I was touched by their authentic excitement. We agreed to meet again after they had filled out a rental application and gotten it back to me for my review. As they were leaving I asked the bookstore person if he knew if they had a copy of "Into The Wild" at the store. He said he knew that they had a couple of copies but that it was selling. I told them I had seen the movie but also wanted to read the book. They listened to me and then left for the night.

I emailed them the application and the next day, they called to tell me they had already left the apps in the mailbox and reiterated how excited they were to rent this apartment.  When I woke in the morning I went out to get them and found that the book store buyer had not only filled out his application but had also picked up a copy of the book I had asked about and left it for me in the mailbox.

I was so touched and somewhat shocked that this person, who I had just met, was really listening to me.  He actually heard what I had said about the book as they were walking out the door and was thoughtful and generous enough to have gotten the book as a gift for me.  The gift of listening was a very special gift to offer in itself -- following up with the book as a token of acknowledgement of him listening so intently just made my day.