Search Results for 'popular' (2974 matches)

Even A Simple Act Can Take Your Breath Away

A little over a year ago, a good friend of my mom's passed away, and it was only when I tried to reach her to let her know of my mom's passing that I was told this sad news. My mom's friend was a big part of my childhood and I remember her fondly. I hadn't spoken with her in many years, but I knew I was still her "Sunshine." My mom's friend had a sister, whom I only met as a child, but to whom I felt an instant connection. I knew immediately that I wanted to reach out to the sister. We have corresponded a few times during this last year, and her kind words and caring thoughts have brought much comfort to me in my own time of need. On September 7, 2010, the day before the first year anniversary of my mom's death, I received a card from ... Read Full Story >>

The Gift of a Thank You

Not long ago, I was out at the mall, buying a gift for one of my younger friends. I stopoped by Claire's to find something for her. As I was glancing at items, I noticed a little girl around 8 or 9 yrs of age walk in, we were both looking at these cute little mini lip gloss boxes that had a picture in the front: one had penguins, dogs, cats, lots of cute pictures. She started thinking out loud, saying: "They're so cute!" I told her pointing at a box, "Did you see this one? It's super cute, too!" She was just delighted! She said to herself in a soft voice, "I wish I had money to get one." I heard her and I couldn't just leave the store, so I asked her, "Which one did you like the most?" She pointed to the pink box with puppies on the cover. I said, "Ok, ... Read Full Story >>

Sunglasses in the Custodian Closet

I'm new to the Smile Cards, but here's my first experience with the cards. I work in a school and after all the kids are gone for the day a sweet young lady  Claire comes in to clean the school classrooms and offices. I'm there late once a week and I often chat for a few minutes with her.  She always makes me feel so good because she's not full of herself and instead she wants to hear about me or will talk about her children.  Our conversations are always great.  Last week she wasn't her happy self and told me how her husband had lost his job of 15 years and that she didn't know what they would do without his income. I wanted to cheer her up some how, but couldn't think of anything at that time. Later that week I was in a department store I noticed all the pretty summer clothing ... Read Full Story >>

Befriending a Bully With Kindness

During the first week of of my second semester sophmore year, the first thing I happen to hear is that there's a new kid at school.  From what was being spread around, this student was being portrayed as a big mean bully, someone that was expelled for getting in a fight at a school nearby. In my mind, though, I could only think how awful and how uncomfortable I would feel as a new student with a reputation already set out for me. So the next thing I did was I searched for the new student.  I ran all over campus to find and locate him, until I found him, head sulked down and with a weary expression upon his face.  Without hesitating, I approached him, introduced myself and asked him if he was new to the campus and if he needed any help getting around.  With a relief, he ... Read Full Story >>

Doubling the Gifting

Having experienced the joys of giving small gifts to others through regular random acts of kindness, I have increasingly questioned whether I was truly being generous or whether I was seeking ego-gratification or some sort of karmic credit to justify living an otherwise ordinary life.  To test this concept, I asked myself if I would be just as generous if the acts were truly anonymous, and I would receive no credit. In seeking out those opportunities, an even more interesting challenge arose - providing random strangers with the opportunity to gift acts of kindness. The first experience was as a restaurant in Times Square with a pre-fixe lunch that included dessert.  I did not want any dessert, so I asked the waiter to find another customer and tell the customer that he was offering a free dessert as a random act of kindness.  I specifically made sure he did not mention me ... Read Full Story >>

A Lift From The Storm

My daughter works in a drive-thru coffee shop downtown.  Our town is small, so we know just about everyone that goes by. 

Gena is a less-abled mom who always walks with two crutches and her son, Sam, rides his bike along with her.  They don't have a car.  The other day a tremendous storm hit and my daughter called to tell me that Gena and Sam were walking in the freezing rain. 

I stopped what I was doing and went to pick them up.  They were so cold, wet and grateful. 

I was so proud of my daughter for taking the initiative to help others!

Breakfast For A Tired Mom

I went through a drive-through this morning to get breakfast.  I saw a woman behind me in line.  She looked really tired and had a couple of kids with her. 

I pulled up to the window and told the clerk I wanted to buy her breakfast and asked him to give her my Smile card.  He seemed moved and said he would.

As I was waiting to pull into traffic, I paused long enough to see the clerk hand the woman in the car behind me the card and point in my direction while she stared in disbelief.  

Then I pulled out and continued on my way, my car windows open, my hair blowing in the long-awaited cool breeze, my favorite music playing.  The morning seemed even sweeter than before.

Kindness In Grief

A long time ago, I was a waitress in a pancake house that stayed open til midnight. One evening around 11:30, a couple came in. There was no one else in the restaurant, so I started chatting as I poured the coffee. It turns out that the womans mother was in the hospital and it was only a matter of time before she passed. We talked how hard it was to watch a parent die and how we both hoped that she wouldn't be in pain for too much longer. She asked if the restaurant would be open the following evening and I assured her that it would and I would be waiting for them with a hot pot of coffee. For 5 more evenings, they retured. I wouldn't let the cook turn off the grill until they showed up. He wasn't happy about it, but after I told him the ... Read Full Story >>

Best Day Of My Life

Today is the best day of my life!   I say this every day before I even get out of bed! Then I think what I am grateful for - a nice warm bed, heat in my house on this cold, wintery day, coffee, running water, a nice house, my family, my health, my kids, my hubby, his job, our town, etc. Then I get up and get on with my wonderful day!   As I drove into town I saw a lady my grandma knew walking along. I stopped and offered her a ride, which she gladly accepted. I dropped her off at her destination, less than five minutes away.   Next, I did my grocery shopping - and noticed someone waiting for a ride outside! I knew her face so I inquired if I could help. "Sure," she said. "My ride won't come for an hour and I could call and cancel when ... Read Full Story >>

Carrying Love Half Way Around The World

The postie has just delivered a letter. It's from a friend in a far away land. Inside is a note, a list of "I Believes" and a beautiful bookmark.

I've been sitting here for the past five minutes at a loss for words. Not because of the gift, although it is sweet, not because of the thought, although that is also appreciated, but because my friend took that thought and that gift and put them into action, in a way that carried love half way around the world.

That's an awesome thing, and, well, it's a lot to take in.

So, I'll digress a little and mention one of the "I Believes." My friend says, "I Believe ... that your life can be changed by people who don't even know you." In a very real way, that's what you all out there in HelpOthersland are doing. You change the lives of the people you help, but you also change the lives of the people you share with on this site. We're becoming a family, for the best of all possible reasons. Thank you all for that.

And to my friend, I Believe ... you have changed my life!

Secret Agents Spreading Smiles!

Today my champion-of-kindness daughter and I set out on one of our kindness missions.  A while back we did some random drops of envelopes filled with a dollar, Smile cards, and a note asking them to pay it forward. Today we tried a similar experiment and it was my little 6 year old’s idea.   We put a different spin on it this time. She wanted to watch people open them, as last time we loved the few we did see. So this time when we left an envelope, we watched from somewhere nearby. We made sure to only leave them when we couldn’t be caught.   The first one someone grabbed and walked off. We only followed them for a bit and then thought it best to move on to our next “victim”. The second one we sat across from and watched. It was a family who found it. The skeptical husband thought for ... Read Full Story >>

18 Holes Of Happiness

There is a golf course a couple miles from where I live and I used to go fishing at a pond there, usually first thing in the morning.    There used to be a guy named Daniel who would come every morning and do maintenance work. It's an 18 hole golf course, really big. He had a morning routine of things he had to do including mowing the grass, putting up the flags at each hole, etc.    He's a really nice guy. We often chatted about different things and we got used to seeing each other there. This morning, I decided that I would do something for him. So, I drove down to the golf course at about 6:30 am and got all the flags for the golf course (which they keep outside by the clubhouse) and went and put them up at each of the holes. This is one the main things ... Read Full Story >>

A Forgotten Young Man

Some years back when I was growing up, we had a young couple who were our neighbours.  They had five children and were a fairly established couple, with a car and other amenities.  Since we were neighbours, their children were like my brothers and sisters.  I must say they lived a good life; their parents took them to better schools than us. In 1988, though, their father passed away.  Two years later, their mother died too.  All of a sudden, the children became orphans.  Some greedy relatives husttled the car and other valuables and the children became destitutes.  They moved out of the neighbourhood and went to stay with their grandmother in the village. Fifteen years later (early this year), I ran into one of the boys. I couldn't believe what I was seeing! Somehow the boy remembered me and then we remembered the "good old days" as neighbors.  By the time I ... Read Full Story >>

My Mother's Simple Lesson in Kindness

  It's easy to see how to help some people, but what about those whose needs are not so obvious? This story may have happened a while back - but it was a lesson which has stayed with me and helped me ever since.   It was Thanksgiving and I was volunteering with my parents at a shelter for the needy. We stood behind the counter dishing out hot food to whoever came in. Most of our diners looked like they had been having hard times, their clothes were threadbare, they were dirty. In short, they looked needy!   Then, a man came in, who looked anything but needy. He was well groomed, he wore an expensive suit. I wondered what he was doing there and my jaw dropped in amazement when he joined the line for food. The closer he came to my service station the more I muttered. What was this man doing, I wanted to ... Read Full Story >>

Five Year Old Jacob's Chocolate Cookies

My husband is not a big fan of kids, especially those without manners and that misbehave. One of our neighbors has 3 children and the oldest is Jacob. He's 10 now, but was 5 at the time.  Just a big bundle of love and energy, with his bright blue eyes, red hair, freckles and braces.  (For you all that remember Mayberry RFD on TV- he's Opie's  look-alike!  For the rest of you, he's a darling! I just love him to death). For some reason, he took a liking to my husband.  Everytime he saw him, Jacob would wave, dash across the street and come visit.  If he was in the garage repairing his bikes or in the front yard cleaning, Jacob would wave, dash across the street and come visit.  Jacob would always ask so many questions and keep my hubby company. They would ride bikes together, and what not.  They really seemed ... Read Full Story >>

Swift Reaction At a Circus

Once when I was a teenager,  my father and I were standing in line to buy tickets for the circus.  Finally, there was only one family between us and the ticket counter.  This family made a big impression on me.  There were eight children, all probably under the age of 12.  You could tell they didn't have a lot of money.  Their clothes were not expensive, but they were clean.  The children were well-behaved, all of them standing in line, two-by-two behind their parents, holding hands.  They were excitedly jabbering about the clowns, elephants and other acts they would see that night.  One could sense they had never been to the circus before.  It promised to be a highlight of their young lives. The father and mother were at the head of the pack standing proud as could be.  The mother was holding her husband's hand, looking up at him as ... Read Full Story >>

My Nurse's Special Birthday Gift

Last month it was my nurse's birthday. She has been caring for me since August 2006. Through the months, we have built an amazing bond. She has been there for me, and has helped me over so many hurdles its unbelievable. She's my rock in every way. I wanted to do something special for her birthday, to show her how much she means to me. Being confined to my bed, I can't go out shopping for a gift. So I was left to use my imagination and the materials in my room. But I was determined to make an unforgettable gift. I found an old shoe box, and got a bunch of my old girlie magazines, and spent 4 days cutting and pasting carefully selected items onto the box, creating an intricate collage. Each piece reflected in some way or another, our friendship. To finish it off, I put a photo of us ... Read Full Story >>

A Small Act at the Grocery Store Starts a New Ripple

There are two men who are almost always outside my grocery store, in various states of dishevelment. One is sometimes (but not always) in a wheelchair. He holds a sign that says he is a vet and "anything will help." The other man is younger, nearly toothless, and if he were not in such a public place, would maybe frighten me a little. I have walked past them countless times, on my way to buy my family's weekly groceries.  I don't usually like to give money to panhandlers. But I see these guys so often, that I decided to make eye contact, say a deliberate "Hi" and smile at them, instead of ducking my head away and ignoring them.  In both cases, I got a startled "hello there" back. Last week, while waiting in the deli area, I noticed the pre-made, plastic-wrapped sub-style sandwiches. I grabbed two of them, two extra apples, and two ... Read Full Story >>

Giving A Gift Card

I was leaving Walmart the other day and saw a young man standing by the exit. He was holding a sign that read, "Even 50 cents would help."  

My heart went out to him because he looked to be the same age as my son. I didn't want to give him money, so I decided to drive to McDonalds (about a mile away) and get him a gift card.  

The Day Star Trek Came Alive

When I was about five or so my favorite television show was Star Trek. Dr. Spock was clearly my favorite character and I listened to his advice with great seriousness. When I found out that  he was going to be signing autographs at TSS, I begged my mother to take me. To continue this story, you have to understand a little about my chaotic childhood. With rampant abuse, television, movies, and books were my only escape. I delved into them and  found places, people, and situations  both like my own and not. It gave this little girl hope. It helped to save me from the messiness of growing up in a dysfunctional household. So I hope you can imagine how important meeting "Spock" was to me. When the day came, I couldn't wait to get to the store! I dressed up in my favorite outfit, green of course, and waited, very impatiently, ... Read Full Story >>