Random Act of Kindness

Today is a good day, and I want to share my feeling-goodness with everyone!

So, let's start by sharing stories. Stories of random acts of kindness, either done to you by someone else, or given from you to someone else!

They don't need to be huge, they can be small. Just something that made you feel good if even for a moment.

Ready, go!

Awesome topic, Adria.  :-)

I got an email from my dad yesterday ... he'd been hanging with one of his friends this past Saturday, and mentioned that my husband and I are moving this Saturday.  Friend just nodded, but when my dad dropped him off later that day, he said, "OK, well, see you at the move next weekend!"

He was not asked to help, nor was a request for his help even implied.  He's just like that.  You gotta bribe most people to help you move (Come, please, and yea there shall be beer and pizza!), but he just said OK, see you there.

WOW, that is amazing! O_O

I got a phone call at work yesterday from someone asking for me by name.  I said, "This is she...",  well, she proceeded to tell me that she had been told to ask for me because I was nice to talk to and could help her find the information that she needed.  It was a nice feeling to know that I had been kind to someone and they had passed that experience on to someone else.  It also made me realize that we can make an impression on someone (negative or positive) even when we don't realize it.  Makes a good case for being nice more often, doesn't it?

I totally agree Alaskanmama.

I had that happen once or twice because I went above and beyond what is required at my job to help people. Most people aren't particularly grateful, but every now and then someone will really show they appreciated it, and it's all worth it!

when i worked at a clothing store a while back a lady came to the counter to pay for lots of stuff, she had a double pram with 2 kids, and three older kids with her. she realised she'd lost her purse with her parking stub in it too. she was really panicking as she said her kids needed a feed. i went into my purse and gave her£20 and said the guys at the parking place would let her get her car if she had the money to pay.

everyone in work said to me that she just hustled money off me!
she came back the next day with the £20 and a big box of chocolates to say thank you....i shared the chocolates with them but i think they found them hard to swallow!

That is so awesome :D I'm really surprised she actually did come back, and with chocolates! Awesome awesome awesome :)

A while back I gave a friend of mine a fairly large check to pay him back for a wedding present we had gone in together on for a friend of ours.  Well, dude goes to the airport that day to pick up his brother and loses the check.

A lady from Oregon (the other side of the country) actually found it and mailed the check back to me when she got back to her office with a little note explaining how she got ahold of it in the first place.  He had even already signed it so she totally could have just cashed it.

I definitely sent her a thank you for that one :)

The other day I was clothes shopping at Loehmann's and while browsing through the handbag sections I overheard another shopper say to her friend  "It's such a good thing when someone just totally worships you."  It was such a random thing to hear that I looked up and gave her a big smile.

Anyway about 10 minutes later the same woman came over to me and gave me her 20% off coupons for that day and said it was because I smiled at her and made her feel good.   So I saved an extra few bucks on some new clothes!

DH and I went to Boston last month and he lost his cell phone in a cab.  We called the cab company but needless to say they didn't have it.  Then the next day DH's dad gets a phone call from the person in Boston who found the phone (apparently he looked into the phonebook and called the one labelled "Dad") and arranged to get it back to us.  We were really happy because we figured we would never see the thing again, and that was $200 we really didn't need to spend at that time to replace it (not to mention the PITA factor of losing all those stored numbers, etc.)

I think this is a great topic, saw it earlier when it first came on and having been trying ever since to think of something, but as yet nothing has come to mind....I will get back to this as I'm sure I must have done an act of kindness at some point.

I love everyone Else's.

I have a similar phone story (and a tip)

This was in the UK before I was married.. Went for a girls night out with some friends .. had a great and boozy time. Was spending the night at best G/f house (closer than mine) so we shared a taxi.

It was POURING with rain.. the taxi couldn't get all the way down her street due to road works .. the driver would have gone around, but we decided to run for it. And of course I stumbled out of taxi in my hurry to get inside, dropping my purse. Didn't think anything of it, until I went to use my phone the next day... no phone!

We hunted in the house, down her driveway, went down the street to where we were dropped off etc. even called the bar where we had spent the previous evening... no luck. My phone! My Numbers! All gone.

Went out that day to buy a new pay-as-you-go one since I had no land-line and it was my lifeline. The following day I got a call from my dad. A man had called him, saying his dog had found my phone when they went out for a walk - apparently it had jumped out of my purse and slid all the way down his driveway!!

He had looked up "Dad" on my phone and called him. I asked my dad if he mentioned his name or address so that I could thank him, but no. He had just said that it was his "pay it forward" for that week (my dad didn't know what he meant). I was able to return the pay as you go for a full refund and got all my numbers back.

TIP: After the stress of thinking I had lost all my numbers (some that I didn't have written anywhere else) I made a list of all of them on a spreadsheet. I update it when I get a new number/ check it every six months (whichever is first) and now I know that if I ever truly lose my phone, I will have all of my numbers safe.

Original Post by fuzzys:

DH and I went to Boston last month and he lost his cell phone in a cab.  We called the cab company but needless to say they didn't have it.  Then the next day DH's dad gets a phone call from the person in Boston who found the phone (apparently he looked into the phonebook and called the one labelled "Dad") and arranged to get it back to us.  We were really happy because we figured we would never see the thing again, and that was $200 we really didn't need to spend at that time to replace it (not to mention the PITA factor of losing all those stored numbers, etc.)

A similar thing happened to my brother.  His first freshman weekend at school he went out partying (surprise, surprise!) and lost his phone.  I got a phone call at like 3am from some drunk kid asking me who I was and why he found someone's phone in apartment... turns out he found my brothers phone and I was the last person my brother called.  I tried not to be cranky about being woken up at 3am! :)

Random acts of kindness.  Truly wonderful things, they usually take hardly any effort to do, and they make the person you help feel good, and you feel good about it yourself.  One of the few win-win situations that are so easy to achieve.

I have always had this attitude, so when a chance to easily help someone presents itself, I like to try to help.  One of the easiest things for me to help with, especially living in Tokyo, is seeing obvious tourists standing with a map or otherwise looking about in confusion about where they are going, I stop by and ask them if they need any help.  I guess about 80% of the times I do this, they are happy for the help.  They head off in the direction they need to go feeling a bit more reassured, and I feel good about having had a chance to help someone, even in such a small way.

Great topic!! Anyone feeling down about their progress should check this thread out :)

This weekend, I was attending a quarterly conference for work. I was surprised with a $50 gift card (along with a Thank You card) to one of my favorite restuarants!! It was supposed to be anonymous, but I figured it out. Just for doing my job. How nice was that??

Not to toot my own horn, but part of what makes me, me, is that I adopt deployed soldiers. The military is a big passion of mine, and I try to do all I can for our servicemen and women. This conference I went to took place at a very posh hotel, with lots of guests coming in and out. Well, I ran into a couple different guys in uniform. I stopped for a split second to just thank them for serving our country. You should have seen the smile on their faces!!! Man, doing that just gives me a huge rush!!

I love random acts of kindness, they can really turn a bad day---good!

 

A few weeks ago I was at the gym, and I was on the treadmill. They have little slots for you to put your iPod and phone in. I had my iPod Touch, and my Sidekick in there. I completley forgot about it and went off to dance class.

Hour later I come out of there and there's this blonde guy (in hid 20's) and he gave my my Phone and my iPod and explained how he saw me on the treadmill and when he went on it he saw all my stuff.

 

I thought it was really nice of him, he told me he was standing out there for 30 mins waiting for me to come out.

Basiclly, he could of kept a 300$ iPod and 200$ SideKick LX.

Now, I return stuff when I see it.

I always do my grocery shopping on Saturday mornings, early, usually about 8:00-8:30AM.  At that time of day, there's generally only one checkout lane open because the store doesn't get busy until later.  As always, of course, the five customers that ARE in the store usually all manage to hit the checkout lane at the same moment.

I always have a huge cart full of stuff, so if someone gets behind me who only has a few things, I let them go ahead of me if the checker hasn't already started with my order.  People always thank me for that, but last Saturday I had someone who was really grateful.

She had about 20 things, as opposed to my 120 things, so I told her to go on ahead.  Her shoulders were hunched and she looked tired.

"Are you sure?" she asked.

"Sure, go ahead, I'm not in a hurry."

She pushed ahead and as she unloaded her cart, she told me that she got an unexpected house full of family "passing through" the night before.  They spent the night and apparently they were all expecting breakfast, for which she had nothing in the house.  So she was kind of agitated as she was unloading her bacon and eggs and frozen biscuits, but then said, "Well, they ARE family after all, what else can you do?"

I just smiled and nodded and she paid for her stuff while I unloaded mine.  Before she left, she turned around and said, "Ma'am, thank you so much for letting me go ahead of you.  I'm not having a good day, and you took away a little bit of my stress this morning."

That made me feel good. :)

So I was helping out at a graduation event with a woman that I don't work with very often. She had her 4 year old granddaughter with her, and she said, "Oh, I'm so glad you two get to meet. My daughter was despairing the other day about how energetic my granddaughter is, and how her mind is always clicking along. And I thought of you and told my daughter that I knew an adult just like her, and that she was just wonderful, so my daughter had nothing to worry about."

Wasn't that sweet? Not quite a "pay it forward," but it sure was nice.

I have had many random acts of kindness paid to me.  Like a few times people have stop to help me when I have been stuck on the side of the road, once I had needed a boost and another time a man had lent me his car phone, yeah that was a while ago.

I always smile at a person when I catch their eye.  I usually get a smile back.  A smile goes a long way.

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My bus driver tonight not only waited for me as I ran to catch her bus, but also let me on without having to whip out my bus pass. Even when it's not 10.30 at night and you're not dying to get home after class it is fantastic when the bus driver is thoughtful. But add those caveats and it's just amazing. She was just so nice that it totally brightened my day.

One time I was travelling alone- driving 10 hours to meet up with my husband, and I got a flat tire.  It was the left rear tire.  I told my self I could fix it and as I started to get the stuff out of the trunk, with all of the cars whipping past me, a van slowed down and pulled over.  Out came two young men and a young women to help.  Up until this point I was stressed but okay (so I thought).  I could not stop the tears from flowing as they quickly changed my tire so I could get back on the road.  I will never forget how much I appreciated their help.