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Kindness of a Stranger

Monday, I was at my local Home Depot waiting to have paint samples mixed. A gentleman who worked there walked by and I said..."Excuse me, sir...I have a question." He said "sure, what can i help you with?"

I told him I have been trying to figure out how to make a wooden cross. He said "ok, what size?" I replied the size of the ones you see on the side of the road that marks where someone has died.

He asked me to show him the approximate size I was looking for. I showed him and he said, "wait right here, I will be right back." 15 minutes later, he came back -- with the cross, that he had made and even tapered the bottom so that it would go into the ground easier.

I was so taken back, and told him I lost my son in a motorcycle accident and I wanted to put the cross there. I hugged him and thanked him and went on my way. The kindness of this stranger has touched me so much. Time to pay it forward and encourage others to do the same.

One Cup Can Change the World

It’s surprising how easily and often humanity inspires you when you’re working in a coffee shop. I’ve heard people complain how working with customers makes them bitter at the world. But in my few months at Starbucks, I saw random acts of kindness preformed almost daily. And one act was so large and unexpected, I’ll simply never forget it. If you’re a regular reader, you know how obsessed I am with  random acts of kindness. However, please don’t mistake me for a good person just because of my strange set of hobbies. I enjoy surprising drive-thru workers with candy, dressing like a superhero, leaving flowers on people’s doorways, and scattering smiley-faces all over Raleigh in much the same way I enjoy collecting comics and video games. It gives me an odd thrill. Tingles. The sweet terror of getting caught. Like ringing a doorbell and running. So it’s not really altruistic. I totally do it ... Read Full Story >>

A Lesson in Compassion From My Brother

It was my birthday so my wife, my brother and my child treated ourselves to dinner in a restaurant that we had never been to before. As we walked back to our car a very thin man approached my brother saying he hadn't eaten in a while and asking for money. Usually my wife and I treat such requests with suspicion but my brother took a different approach and he started talking with the man. The man said he was a singer and had come to Dubai from Pakistan to find work. His visa was expiring in three or four days. He  had no friends here, couldn't land a singing job, and was surviving hand to mouth. He had a return ticket that had to be confirmed. To do this he needed 70 Dirhams. My brother gave him 20 Dirhams for food and asked the man to give him a call from the airline's ticket office the next day. He also ... Read Full Story >>

Have A Fierce Mind!

I left post it notes in the park on park benches in the sun this morning. This one was my favourite (and may go on the back of the front door tomorrow) "May your heart be kind, your mind fierce and your spirit brave"

Kindness and Love Starts at Home

The greatest gift I can recall ever giving my children is the lesson of selfless love.  This is when the only reward from giving to others is that the love for them in your heart grows deeper and stronger. During the holidays we bake and bake and bake.  We then box up that love and secretly place it on the doorsteps of those we know and those we do not. We attach a card that simply states, "I thought of you today, and it made me smile."

The sheer joy the children received from giving this "secret" gift of selfless love lingers with them to this day.  My oldest is 24 and remembers those days. She recently returned from serving in Iraq and has decided to start her own Random Act of Kindness this year in Minnesota.  My second, a young man of 19, wants to know when I plan on doing it this year so he can make the two-hour car ride to join us.  The two children left at home are 18 and 3 and can't wait till we get baking.

In my experience, love does not have a price tag, and charity and love for one another start at home.

Kindness During Half Term

This last week we had half term holidays and my niece stayed with us for the week because my nephew ( her brother) was going to have a delicate spine surgery and it was easy for the parents to concentrate on looking after him. My daughter, my neice, and I went out for some last minute shopping and while I was on the line waiting to  pay the girls asked if they could wait for me at the door. Some minutes later they return to ask if they could give the sweets  they had just bought to a man in the street, so there they go and give their sweets away, another 2 minutes and they return to ask me if there was anything else they could give the man, I told them that I only had the 3 ginger bread men they had bought for dessert, so they took the biscuits to ... Read Full Story >>

In My Late Twenties ...

In my late twenties I taught aqua-fitness for three years (three times a week). I was also teaching swimming to people afraid of the water. I had an amazing lady of 77 years old, that just began to love water at that age. It was beautiful to see her new love story with water as she was so scared of it for so many years before. I was also finishing my bachelor in psychology at that time and thought about the incredible positive psychological impact all that had in her life. It was beautiful to see her evolve in the water.... playing and having fun! She felt so good about her swimming,that she started to become more active. She used to run on the her roof top, begun to do yoga again and she fell in love with a new neighbor.... her eyes were twinkling! she told me it was like ... Read Full Story >>

Living on the Street

I was headed to the UMW womens basketball game yesterday, and I saw an older man, maybe 65, sitting next to a stop sign on William Street at the intersection of Route One and William Street. He was sitting down wearing tattered clothes, and an oversized jacket. A homeless man holding a sign that said: "Hold care in your hearts Thanks very much And God Bless!" I parked my car in the Goolrick Gymnasium parking lot and walked up to the old man and asked "How are you doing?" He looked at me suprised, like I was going to injure him, kind of caught up in words he just said "I am fine, just making a living." Embarrassed, he said "I live on the streets." The one thing that suprised me was that he never asked me for anything, no money or food, seeing that he was homeless was given he even told me so. Even his sign didn't ask for ... Read Full Story >>

Walkathon for Orphans

$150,000 raised from the Walkathon!

I would like to thank everyone for coming out
today to the Copprome Walkathon. I can't
thank everyone enough! We had over 700 people
attend!

With the combined funds of SHH, CCC, and William and Mary team, at the event we raised at least $150,000!! This is amazing, all the hard work everyone has put in is remarkable! This money will be used to pay off land debts and begin self-sustainable programs at the Copprome orphanage.

Today I saw groups of people coming together for a great cause, to help save orphans. When you are performing a good and just cause help seems to come out of the woodwork and I saw that today.

I thank everyone soo much for donating, walking
and supporting the cause!

"Orphans walk miles a day to search the trash
dumps for leftover food, and rotten cabbage, to
eat and give to their younger siblings, today we
are walking in this walkathon so they dont have
to!" ~strider

~Strider

One Email Begets Another

A few days ago I was really frustrated because no one seemed to be free for some random acts of kindness. I had wanted to go out and do something big and was about to give up all together when I realized that I could easily do something just as meaningful right from my computer in about 15 minutes. I logged on to Facebook (which is an utterly addictive yet pointless website :)) and sent a message to each one of my friends. Most of them were along the lines of, "Hi! I'm having a random acts of kindness day and I'd just like to wish you a beautiful day!" I had been a bit nervous that it would look corny but after I did it, I felt great!   And I felt even better still when I came back that night to find an unexpected 70 or so replies! They ... Read Full Story >>

An Act Of Kindness Kept This Homeless Man From Stealing

The other day I was doing some grocery shopping and a man, who was unkempt and spent most of the time talking to no one in particular, walked toward a group of us at the checkout stand. I overheard him say to the man in front of me, "I don't wanna steal from this store...would you buy me some food?" The man in front of me pretended not to hear him; it was as if he were invisible. I waited patiently for my turn to be questioned, but it never came. So I asked him, "Can I buy you something to eat?" He gladly accepted. The man got a bag and began putting samosas in the bag. As my items were being rung up I watched the man put the samosas into the bag; 1, 2, 3... He finally stopped and I asked him how many he had got and he replied ... Read Full Story >>

Just Listening

I've found that just listening to people, and their problems, and what they're going through, is a good way to show kindness. A lot of people just want someone to pay attention to them, to hear them out. I know I do.  And it's a wonderful feeling when someone actually cares enough to want to listen to you, your deepest thoughts and troubles, and help you dig to the roots of it all. 

I want to become a therapist someday, God willing, and although a lot of people think that are just "quacks" that don't know what they're talking about, that's not true. They truly want to listen to you and they care about their fellow human beings enough to actually help them. A lot of people think suffering is only physical.. more often it is psychological. 

Anyways.. I'm going off on a tangent.. so in a nutshell: really listen to people. God gave us 2 ears and only one mouth for a reason.

A Pretty Mission

I make it a point, if I see them, to go up and compliment teenage girls or young women. I might tell her how pretty her hair is, or how much I like her dress, or just how pretty she is. I'm usually old enough to be their grandmother so I'm never misunderstood when I do this.   I remember how insecure I was when I was their age and how much it would have meant to me to have an older woman tell me something like that and know it was said with no ulterior motive. And I see this same insecurity in young girls today. It's so hard for us to believe that we're pretty for any number of reasons.   I was looking through an old photo album with my husband and he said how pretty I was back then and I could see it now, looking back, but I couldn't ... Read Full Story >>

Looking for Ways to be Kind to Strangers

Over the weekends I often find myself leaving home at around 9:00am. I find it hard to stay indoors on a Saturday, so I either head to the office or to town to run some errands. Towards the end of last year, after being encouraged by various acts of kindness from this website, I resolved to make it my mission to touch people's lives unexpectedly.  My target was the underpriviledged in society and in my country the street children were my target group. Each Saturday morning as I would go to get some milk and bread from the nearby shop, I would see how many kids there were in the vicinity and buy them milk and bread also. They would of course have no clue of this and all I would do is creep up on them and give it to them. One day, I was heading back to my bus terminus and saw this beggar on the street in a wheelchair. ... Read Full Story >>

Blankets And Warm Clothes For The Homeless

Years ago, a local man (vancouver BC (canada) named Gregory Ould encountered a homeless man, and approached asked him if there was something he could do to help him.

Greg was expecting the man may want something like cigarettes, but the man in need said he could use a blanket to make it through the night on the cold streets.

Greg went and got a blanket for him, and since then, Greg and his young son started an organization called Blanket BC, which collects blankets and warm clothes to be distributed to shelters that help the homeless.

An annual Drive on the Line event was held this past Friday and Saturday, with “Blanketeers” collecting the donations at select Canada Line stations (our local version of a subway) .

I have been a Blanketeer in years past, and dropped off 2 warm jackets on Friday.

Info: www.blanketbc.org
 

Secret Santa for a Family in Need

I have always hated how Christmas has become more about the commercial side and less about the giving.  So, a few years ago, I was without a job (between jobs, but not working none the less)  but knew I wanted to give something to someone that needed things more than I did.  I searched around and found a local community centre (this isn't my home town, so I wasn't familiar with the area yet) and asked if there was anything I could give to help someone else.  Well, it was just a couple days before Christmas and the lady there told me that there was a family in need, who had submitted their names, but had somehow gotten lost in the system.  They didn't know what they were going to do about it, so, my boyfriend and I decided to take them on and be their Secret Santa.  All we ... Read Full Story >>

A Smiling Face at the Store

I needed to get some supplies to clean the house this weekend, so I headed over to a local store. While walking through the aisles there, I realized that I wasn't smiling at anyone. That was out of character. I almost always smile at strangers with the hope that it might brighten their day a bit. But in that particular moment, my mind was focused on events that had bothered me earlier in the day. Not really in the mood to smile, I thought, Oh well, and continued through the store. When I went to check out my things, I was met with a very long line. People were stocking up on Christmas gifts and things for the holidays. To help minimize the first line, a second register opened up. I quickly switched over to the it. After a few moments, I began to notice that all the people in front ... Read Full Story >>

Kindness Ripples Spread Through Arby's

As I stood in a busy lunch line at Arby's I was becoming increasingly worried I would be late getting back to the office. A grandmother and her grandson were keeping the only available cashier busy. The woman had difficulty with all the choices and, after finally placing the order, became very flustered trying to find her cash or her credit card.  While this was going on, the cashier had the most gentle and benevolent expression on his face, never once making the woman feel under pressure. His mood transformed my own. I caught his eye and quietly indicated I would pay for the order. He understood and took care of it without embarrassing the woman. Then when I eventually placed my order he paid for my lunch!  As I stood aside waiting for my order two other customers spoke to me about what had happened and said they would also "pay it forward" as a ... Read Full Story >>

An Anonymous Wedding Gift

When my sister got married some time back, we were all excited.  After her honeymoon she invited me over to her house to help her unwrap the gifts and send some thank you notes to all the people that came to the wedding party.  As a side note, my sister works at Standard Bank in Malawi. Going through the gifts, we came across this precious exotic ice bucket in silver and gold.  I had never seen such a beautiful ice bucket.  Inside it was a note that read, "When I heard you were getting married, I asked around for the details and somehow managed to get here.  You might not know me but I know you.  I am a regular customer at Standard Bank and you helped me a lot when I was applying for a loan.  I will never forget what you did, God bless you.  -- Anonymous" When I showed my sister the note, she couldn't remember who the person ... Read Full Story >>

Live As Though Everything Is A Miracle

The following passage is a healthy prescription of how we can approach life. It is not about being famous or being wealthy or about our good looks. Truly, it is all about love. There are times when we feel as if we are separated from the rest. This illusion creates a mental prison. Hence, we should strive to internally liberate ourselves by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living things. "Open your heart to others and try to understand, When someone reaches for you, hold out to them your hand, Follow your heart, no matter what other people say, Do things that make you able to smile throughout your day, Treat other people, the way you would like them to treat you, Do what you know is right and to your heart and self stay true, Remember what life is all about, it is how you make people feel, What you do, where you go, and making dreams become real, Helping people through, in hard times of ... Read Full Story >>