A random act of kindness is a selfless act performed by a person for no reason other than to brighten another individual's day. Have you ever done anything nice for someone? Has someone ever done anything nice for you? We would love to hear your story."Practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty" - Anne Herbert
16 comments:
I remember several years ago going to Disney world, and I spent a long time saving up for that trip.
Like a dummy, I left my wallet in a bathroom stall, and by the time I realized what I had done and ran back to get it, it was gone.
I was totally bummed. That was all of my spending money for the trip. Now I wouldn't be getting any souvenir's, and I was going to have to rough it as far as planning my meals for the next few days because I had some of that money alloted for eating out.
It was all I could do to keep from crying.
Anyway, I did the best I could to enjoy my trip... it was afterall Disney world, the happiest place on earth!
When I came home a few days later I received a package in the mail. I was curious about it... I hadn't ordered anything had I?
I unwrapped it to find my wallet! With every dollar inside, including all of my identification and everything else. I continued to look through the wallet and inside one of the little pockets was a little handwritten note:
"I found your wallet in a bathroom at Disney world. My parents brought me up to always return something if it wasn't mine."
No name. No return address. How was I going to thank this person?
I have always wondered who they were... just so I could let them know how much I appreciated what they did for me... and I don't mean just for returning my wallet. I mean for restoring my faith in people.
A little over a year ago an exchange student was brutally raped and beaten in our neighborhood while she walked home from work.
Me and a couple of friends helped gather donations from several businesses to help her because this scumbag had knocked out several of her teeth, and it was going to cost thousands to repair her mouth.
One of the businesses held onto the money for us. Then it came to light that a well-known and very respected Dentist was going to donate all of his work for this poor girl. The business we had entrusted with the funds then refused to turn over the money saying, "The Dentist is donating the work, so now she doesn't need the money".
Enraged, I called our Local news station and told them what was happening.
They confronted this business, basically embarrassing them, so they finally released the money.
My point of contention was, even though the Dentist was donating his work, all of the People that made the Donations, did so, thinking it was going to this girl.
In the end, she finally got all of her teeth fixed by this kind Dentist, and we were all extremely happy to see almost $20,000 go to her personally, to do with what she wanted.
I remember when my mom died,and girls I went to Middle School with who I hadn't spoken with in years, came to the wake and the funeral. Same for my brothers and sisters: hundreds of people we had all gone to elementary school, middle school and high school with, all came. I don't know if that counts as a random act of kindness but I remember we were all blown away by it. I got letters from people too: my old friend Amy wrote a letter to me detailing one memory of my mom (which when I think about it was I guess a random act of kindness from my mom!) my older sisters who are quite a bit older than me (8 and 9 years) had a cottage down the cape for the summer and when I was 11 I went to visit them for a week. Well I was bored out of my skull because it was all college kids. My mom knew this and without telling me in advance, she drove my best friend Amy up there to the Cape for the last few days of my visit and surprised me. In her letter, Amy wrote of how my mom had called her parents and set it up, and also packed fruit and cookies for the drive up for her. I remember I was so happy to see her, it was such a nice surprise!
aww, I'm getting teary remembering it!
And great, great stories, cfg and mpp! loved them!
moved this to the welcome thread as I did not want to clog up any threads with an ensuing war.
Well, Just a few facts I have never mentioned. On June 25th 2006 I gave birth to my beautiful daughter, now 2. She was born, as planned , into a room full of family and friends and more love than you could ever imagine. On this very day, that my child was born, my best friends child was admitted to the hospital, only to find out a short while later he was dying of Cancer.My best friend's son,my best friend who held my hand as I sqeezed so hard while in Labor. I yr and 2 weeks later, after making weekend trips to Stanford and praying like we have never prayed before, I sat in a Mortuary with her and now she was sqeezing my hand so hard as she mourned her son. I sat there in the front pew, numb.I was seven months pregnant and felt guilty as hell surrounded by all these babies ..as she had just lost hers.Trying to pick up the pieces was more than I had ever imagined. Watching what this did to their family, to my husband & I, to everyone..was devastating.
I have never cried for anyone, as I cried for her. As a mommy, I cannot even imagine her pain.
Then a few short months later, my husband & I were coming home from a family function, only to receieve a phone call, that my husbands best friend ,since second grade, had sufferred a major heart attack and died just a few hrs earlier. I pulled the car over and there standing on the shoulder of a major freeway, held my husband as I gave him the sad news.
A few days later, I watched my husband give a eulogy that would make every grown man in that church cry.
The reason I am sharing all of this..I was told by my family doctor that finding a fun hobby might help keep my mind off of all of the recent tradgedy. A nanny friend reccommended this site . I came here to help keep my mind occupied. Yes, 3 children keep me busy, but my mind is filled with so much grief, that all of your posts and stories have been a welcomed and enjoyable,distraction.
I will be the first to admit, it's easy to get caught up in an argument on this site. Afterall, children mean so much to all of us and our emotions run high when faced with such diverse opinions.
I have in more than one instance fessed up to being wrong to a few different posters and offerred a few aplologies to those who I did make remarks about.
Any other name calling in the past would have definitely been a two sided affair and only in defensive anger , after being called names myself, would I have called names or badgered anyone.
That said, I do not feel deserving of attention from certain posters who feel I am their own personal puching bag. I came here for my own reasons . Adding any extra grief to my life right now is just not in the cards.
Nor do I feel good about being a part of an ugly fight on a site that Jane & MPP work so hard and put so much time into keeping up and running so that we all have a place to voice our concern for the children in this world.
Jane, your site is fabulous..I wish you much continued luck.
To all of my new friends at ISYN, thanks for all the laughs. So many of you are so funny and sweet.
Maybe later down the line, I will check up on some of you..afterall, it is the trolls I am trying to avoid at this time in my life and not any of you!
Cheers and Happy posting!BLB
blb, we love you and you shouldn't let mean people get to you! I hope they are happy that they hurt people's feeling: what poor unfortunate souls they are!
Your story made me cry: my blessings for you, your family and your friends. My mother died of cancer, so I can relate. Your family and friends are so lucky to have you!
BLB
I hope you realize that you have many friends on this site that care about you, more than the 1 or 2 that haven't been very nice.
You have been through so much to get to where you are now, and leaving would be such a disappointment for me.
You have so much to offer this blog, we really appreciate what you have to say, and we need you to stay!
just saying is a troll. she isn't just after you. she goes after the validity of every sighting. screw her seriously.
This is one of my favorite stories. For those of you who know my history, I was a nanny for over ten years, spending the last eight years with one family that I came to love and regard as my own.
Early on in the job, the oldest girl was about 20 months old. She wasn't a huge talker. I had come upstairs and was sitting in on the floor in the playroom playing with her sister. She came up to me, looked me up and down and left to go back to her bedroom that was off of the playroom. She returned carrying in both hands and presenting to me, a pair of size 2 baby gap jeans.
You see I had arrived that day in jeans which as was the style at the time, had rips in the knees.
And that was her immediate thought, as a not quite two year old- to give me a pair of her jeans.
Awwww, Jane. That is just adorable! :)
A few days after 9/11 a neighborhood florist placed a large pail of yellow daffodils in front of the store with a sign "To Our Neighbors, please take one". I explained to my charges that they were to make people feel better because we were so sad. We each took one, and the five year old asked if we could take them to our neighborhood firehouse, because the firemen were very sad. (They lost nine men) We went home and the children made pictures of trees and flowers, and we took them, with the flowers to the firehouse where the wall was covered with drawings and notes, the sidewalk with candles and flowers.
That was the CUTEST story, Jane! Thanks for sharing!!!
I had a flat tire one time on a busy highway, and of course my cell phone had died. (I learned my lesson there and bought a portable battery charger) Anyway, I was approached by a gentleman and he offered to fix my tire for me. I was surprised this kind man didn't take offense that I never got out of my car, and didn't roll my window down more than an inch! Safety first!
Did you offer him a little cash for helping you out? If I had a flat tire and had some money I would offer a little.
Of course, balloon! I didn't think it mattered my saying so, but when I went to offer him some money, he said, "No, thanks." And I said well if you don't want it, burn it, or give it to someone else, because I'm not keeping it.
He laughed and took it.
Good for you Mrs.
I remember as a kid my sisters and I found a wallet. Inside was alot of money. If I am not mistaken, almost $1000.
My dad called the persons number there was id in there and credit cards, etc. So we told him we would drop it off at the police station
We went to the police station with my parents. They put the report in. And the cop thanked us kids for doing the right thing.
The police called us back and told us he picked up the wallet. The cop mentioned that he should give us kids something for doing the right thing.
But of course the guy didn't. Not even a thank you.
Nice huhh? If that was me, I would give the kids a portion of the cash. Otherwise, someone else could have taken it and not say a word.
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