Stories by Aiya (8 matches)

100 Qualities I Love About You

I have a friend whom I talk to a lot and love to share things with. Since she is a bit smaller than me, I'm usually giving her the clothes I outgrow. She doesn't have much money so she really appreciates them. Anyway, she had a horrible past, her parents were abusive to her both mentally and physically. As a result, she has very low self esteem and is very fragile. 

A couple of nights ago, her fiance and his friend came up to bring her an early valentine's day present, and then without warning, his friend calls her ugly! The poor thing was heart broken, and her whole past came rushing into her head, making her sob for hours. I felt sooo bad. I didn't do well trying to cheer her up over the phone... but what can you do?

So I thought of something. Everyone loves hearing that they have good qualities in them, especially when they don't think they have any. I decided to write 100 qualities I love about her. To show her that she is loved and beautiful.

 I finished it today and decorated it with colored pencils and crayons. I'm going to give it to her tomorrow morning. I hope she likes it. :)

Five Dollar Bus Fare

A bunch of us carpooled in a van to go to the holiday prayer at the convention center and the celebrations afterwards.

After visiting for hours, we were on our way home late that evening. (We live about an hour away from where we were going.)  Before we dropped off someone, we noticed he didn't have enough money for the bus.  He only needed 50 cents, so he kindly asked if anyone could spare some change.

While everyone looked in their wallets, I remembered I had 5 dollars in my purse I was saving for coffee. I wanted to help, so I gave him all 5 dollars.  And it made me happier than coffee does. :)

Everyone Loves Candy!

I was talking on the phone to my friend Naima, and how I need to be more considerate and generous because I want to improve on those areas.

But she said she thought I was very considerate, like when I made sure she got extra candy on the way out of my house. 

So I think even though we want to do really big nice things for people, like go out and raise money for the poor or collect things for local shelters, I think we do a lot of kind things without even realizing it.  :)

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.

Smile Poems (and my First Smile Card)

I decided to make cards with smile poems in them, just blank greeting cards I found in the closet. After writing smile poems, I taped smile cards inside. 

My friend and I were walking around town and decided to get coffee at one of those really tiny coffee shops they have randomly around town. The cashier/server was really sweet, like a genuine sweet, not a fake one. So after she gave us our coffee I took out a smile greeting card thing and gave it to her, and told her to read it.

She didn't read it until after she served another customer, giving us time to be far enough away not to see her reaction. More fun that way. :)

Gift Bags Are Awesome. ^_^

My friend usually runs out of money for food at the end of the month, she doesn't make that much money, and her sister is staying with her the next two weeks. So as I was filling up a bag of boxed foods I know she likes, I thought, hmm... I should add some surprises! So I added a couple books, envelopes with stamps and paper because they like to write letters, bracelets, necklaces, and some other random things. They loved them, yay! It actually made me a heck of a lot more excited just giving the bag to them than if I had gotten a bag myself.

Sometimes I feel bad writing these stories, because I don't believe it's right to talk about your good deeds. But I know it's a good way to give ideas to people (and I know myself how hard it is to think of nice things to do sometimes), and it's nice to be able to read a story and say, "Hey, there's something I can do!" lol. Yeah. So continue writing your stories, even if you feel bad, because it gives the rest of us kindness ideas!! =D

Little random acts of kindness

Although the big ones are most memorable, I find little random acts of kindness make me pretty happy as well. Holding doors open for people, listening to a friend when they're having a bad day, providing advice, smiling at someone so that they smile too.  Those are only a few things of a long list we can do everyday. Kindness has no limits! Keep it goin!!

God Blessed Me With Tunics =)

So there's a bit of a heat wave over here, it's been 80 degrees a lot. (For the northwest area of the states, that's pretty hot!) And since I'm muslim, I can only wear shirts with full length sleeves and long skirts, no t-shirts, tank tops, or shorts. So tunics are awesome in the summer because they are light, yet still very modest.

Anyways, I was gettin depressed because they aren't currently selling any here(I only have a couple, because usually it's below 70 here so I have mostly thicker clothing), and I don't drive so I can't go to a bigger city to find some. And internet sites are too expensive(I still live with my parents and just get allowance).

So as I was telling all this to one of my friends over the phone, she said she'd give me some of hers! Yay!! God bless her heart for saving me from the heat. =) 

So yes, my kindness of the week is kindness given to me.

By the way, ice cream is good for heat waves too. ^_^

Five More Minutes

Life is Like Hot Chocolate

Message In A Wallet

Snail Mail Surprises

A Forgotten Young Man

Wooden Necklace From A Dollar Store

The Beggar Poem

Not Great, Only Kind

What The Geese Taught Me

You Are So Beautiful To Me

A Car Ride To Remember

A Firefighter's Point of View

A Trail of Shells

The Joys of Being a Waitress

87 Year Old Woman Named Rose

The Crumpled Dollar

Mocha for Me

All it Takes is Chalk

People on the Corner

A new project