Random and intentional acts of kindness

[curly_kate]

Wonderful thread! I don't have anything major because I have been fortunate enough not to have fallen on too hard of times. But one week a few winters ago, DH was out of town during a bad snowstorm. I wasn't able to find anyone who could plow my fairly steep driveway, so I was parking at the bottom of the hill, and walking up to the house. A neighbor who I hadn't met before came by with his plow and plowed my driveway out, spic & span, for me. I offered to pay him, or give him some honey & eggs for his trouble, but he refused everything I offered. Just confirmed how good the neighbors are out in these parts!

 

[Denim Deb]

I sometimes wonder if the African American gentleman that I helped w/his tire (he had a regular jack which was sinking into the mud at the side of the road, I had a mechanic's jack) tells people about the white chick that stopped and helped him w/his tire in the rain. Figured I'd pass along the favor I received.

 

[rebecca100]

It's that time of year-time to tell one of my favorite stories! We had already lost our home in the tornado and were living in a camper. My dad was elderly, almost deaf and had bells palsy. The kids were out of school and dad needed me to take him to the store. His vehicle had quit again. Dh and I were really struggling ourselves and barely making ends meet with very little left over. I had planned on getting some groceries for dad because he had basically nothing but bacon and bread and some canned goods. So at the store the kids were trying to talk to every stranger they met. I was trying to ask dad what all he needed and having to yell so he could hear me and then translate if he spoke to anyone else because his speech was so slurred by the bells palsy. Well ds in his nonstop never meeting a stranger went to talking to some woman about no telling what and I made him come on. We checked out and were getting in my beat up on it's last legs old jeep when the woman ds had been talking to came out. She said her name was Dakota and she asked if ds could go in with her and get some candy. I told her it was fine. When they came back out she had every bit of $200 worth of Thanksgiving dinner food for us and ds's candy! She got a ham and a turkey and everything else for thanksgiving! I cried and thanked her. What we had planned to be a small thanksgiving turned into a big one and plenty of leftovers!

 

[Homemaker]

I spotted a wooden horse among my friends daughters toys. I asked her where she got it and she pointed to a man I did not know that was sitting alone carving some wood. I went over and I told him what a lovely horse it was. He said he was a new grandpa and he wanted to practice so he could make toys for his grandchild. I asked him how much he wanted for one. I thought my dd would like one she was 9mo. He said he would just make her one no charge. I told him that wasn't fair if he was going to take the time to do it he should be payed. He said no. He asked for my address. It was fall and I sort of forgot about it. December came around and we got a package in the mail. Inside was 2 wooden horses, one carved in dark wood the other light, they had to little brown eyes and tails made of twine. They were wonderful. I contacted him and asked him what I owed him for postage. He said nothing.
We weren't planning on doing Santa Clause with my daughter. I wanted to keep Christmas a holy day. But, after seeing those two horses we decided to put them in a stocking. It was her first Christmas and Santa had come. The real Santa. Someone who gave of himself for no other reason then to give of himself. I will always put a little something in her stocking for her. And when she is old enough to ask I will tell her this story. I get all teary eyed just thinking of it.

 

[Beekissed]

I cried and thanked her. What we had planned to be a small thanksgiving turned into a big one and plenty of leftovers!

I just recycled those warm fuzzies and tears....stories like that always make me cry! <sniff!> What a blessing an act of kindness can be....and God always seems to send me one in my darkest hours.

 

[hwillm1977]

We aren't well off... by a long shot and we generally just scrape by, but I like to do nice things once in a while for others, and people have been generally nice to me as well

I was working in a chinese restaurant and we had a regular customer, an elderly gentleman who came in alone about once a week... he always ate alone, and always just had a combo plate. One week I told him that someone who wanted to remain anonymous had paid for his dinner and wished him a good weekend... he got all teary eyed and said it was the nicest thing that had happened to him since his wife passed away 6 months before.... (I paid for his meal that day)

I was packing my groceries into the car on a rainy day, Aeryn was waiting in her car seat and a lovely woman walking by offered to walk my cart back to the store so that I didn't have to get Aeryn out in the rain again... she stood there and waited while I unloaded the groceries and took the cart for me... it was wonderful.

My car caught on fire on the side of the highway (it actually caught on fire at 80 miles an hour, in the passing lane), but I managed to pull it over to the side of the highway... people started lining up to watch it burn, but thankfully the fire went out quite quickly after the car was turned off. One gentleman, with about two teeth in his head, looking like he'd been in a chicken barn all day came up and asked if I'd like some help (at that point I was a teenaged girl with bright blue hair)... I nearly cried, everyone else had been cheering the fire on, he was my guarian angel... he called a tow truck, PAID for it, drove me into the city and got me to my brother's house... I was 1000 miles from home and I had found a guardian angel. I didn't have the money for a tow, or the mechanic, but he took it to his friend's house and drove my fixed car to my brother's house the next day and refused to take anything for it... I couldn't believe how wonderful he was.

I do little things sometimes, like pay for the coffee of the person behind me in drivethrough... it's a small thing, but I'm sure it makes someone smile for the day.

 

[Beekissed]

Powerful stories! When I hear or experience someone taking kindness to a stranger to the level of your guardian angel, hwillm1977, it only inspires me to do something as grand for someone. I'm constantly on the look-out for people to help....I think that level of kindness can change lives, both the giver's and the recipient's.

 

[hwillm1977]

Powerful stories! When I hear or experience someone taking kindness to a stranger to the level of your guardian angel, hwillm1977, it only inspires me to do something as grand for someone. I'm constantly on the look-out for people to help....I think that level of kindness can change lives, both the giver's and the recipient's.

It's funny, I listed 'One Random Act of Kindness' on Ebay just two days ago... we were in the process buying our dream farm but had to wait for me to go back to work to qualify for the mortgage... well I'm laid off instead of returning to work from maternity leave... so the bank won't give us a mortgage without a 50% down payment... and although our current house is paid off, it's worth about $25,000.

So I got it in my head that maybe people would be willing to donate just $5 toward a making the hobby farm dream of a complete stranger come true... so I listed the random act of kindness on Ebay. In a similar vein to the guy that traded the red paper clip for a house, I just need to find 20,000 people willing to give up $5 and I will have my dream farm. Out of the millions on Ebay, surely there are some who would be willing to do something like this for a stranger. I don't want to ask people I know, I wanted it to be complete strangers I just need to figure out how to get the thing to go viral and get a ton of people to the auction, and then spend the rest of my life paying it forward to repay all those kindnesses.

I want to teach city kids (and grown ups for that matter) what real food is, how to prepare it and where it comes from... and this place is absolutely perfect for that. Now that I'm without a 'real' job I could make my dream come true. Unfortunately, if you don't have money, the bank won't give you any money.

Here's my dream house:
http://www.realtor.ca/propertyDetails.aspx?propertyId=11096952&PidKey=1533222926

So if you'd like to help me... maybe anyone who wants to could post my auction link on their facebook pages, or email to people they know... here's the auction link, I think... or you can just search for 'One Random Act of Kindness for a Complete Stranger' on Ebay

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/One-Random-A...694?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_2&hash=item1e684f3e86

 

[Beekissed]

That is a beautiful house! The property sounds lovely and just the right size. I certainly hope your experiment pans out....please keep us posted, as this is very interesting.

 

[ORChick]

When I was 21 I was able to spend some time in Europe, doing the "Grand Tour" - hitch-hiking around, staying in Youth Hostels, and seeing the sights, and learning about various places. When I got to Italy I rented a car, thinking that a lone girl hitchhiking was probably not a good idea. I drove down the west coast, from Genoa to Palermo, Sicily - took a week, and was really very fun. In Palermo I parked the car, and walked to the American Express office where I hoped to find letters from my parents. On the way back to the car I was being paced by a tiny Italian car, and its driver was "chatting me up", as the English say, and I was trying to ignore him. Reaching the car I found that the window had been pushed in, and my backpack stolen - meaning, all my clothes, toiletries, a couple of books, and (worst of all) my journal I'd been keeping of the trip - everything that I owned except that which had been with me and not in the car. Luckily all my important papers, passport, money were in the small bag I always carried with me. My would be Lothario, as soon as he saw that I was upset, got out of his tiny Fiat, and suddenly turned into my "big brother"! No more thoughts of picking up the American girl, but he took me to the police station to file a report; he came with me to the rental car people to explain the circumstances; he took me to a store where I could buy the minimum in necessities to hold me over. He bought me dinner, and he found me a room for the night (alone!). He hovered over me for the next 2 days until I could get a train back to my friends in Germany. And never made another pass at me. I had no Italian, and his English was minimal, but he really was as helpful and good to me as my real big brother would have been in a similar situation. That was a long time ago, and I've even forgotten his name, but I will never forget how he helped a foreign girl in trouble.
And on the train north I assumed that there would be a dining car ... but of course there wasn't; and the trip between Palermo and Milan in the far north of Italy took 30 hours. I had 2 kilos (4 lbs) of oranges with me, but nothing else to eat. Seeing my plight a very kind Sicilian family, with a large picnic basket, shared what they had with me (and I shared the oranges). They had no English at all, but it was a wonderful lunch despite the lack of verbal communication.