Oh, I’m so glad you’re here! Did you see a kindness, do a kindness, remember a kindness done some time in your life? Yes? Excellent…
Remember, there is no moment of kindness too small to wonder over, enjoy and share. Whether you unexpectedly heard “I love you” or have a detailed story, this is the place to share it with the world!
Add your moment or story or record it by dialing 203.MAMA054 (203.626.2054) and we’ll take care of getting it posted for you.
Why do I think kindness is so important? Listen in or read why here.
Their marriage was good, their dreams focused. Their best friends lived barely a wave away.
I can see them now, Dad in trousers, tee shirt and a hat and Mother in a house dress; lawn mower in his hand, and dish-towel in hers.. It was the time for fixing things. A curtain rod, the kitchen radio, screen door, the oven door, the hem in a dress.
Things we keep.
It was a way of life, and sometimes it made me crazy. All that re-fixing, eating, renewing, I wanted just once to be wasteful. Waste meant affluence. Throwing things away meant you knew there’d always be more.
But then my mother died, and on that clear summer’s night, in the warmth of the hospital room, I was struck with the pain of learning that sometimes there isn’t any more. Sometimes, what we care about most gets all used up and goes away…never to return.
So… While we have it…. it’s best we love it… And care for it…. And fix it when it’s broken….. And heal it when it’s sick.
This is true… For marriage…. And old cars…. And children with bad report cards….. Dogs and cats with bad hips….
And aging parents…. And grandparents.
We keep them because they are worth it, because we are worth it.
Some things we keep. Like a best friend that moved away or a classmate we grew up with. There are just some things that make life important, like people we know who are special…. And so, we keep them close!
I received this from someone who thinks I am a ‘keeper’, so I’ve sent it to the people I think of in the same way…
Now it’s your turn to send this to those people that are ‘keepers’ in your life.
Send it back to the person that sent it to you if they too are a keeper. Good friends are like stars…. You don’t always see them, but you know they are always there. Blessings to you today and always!
< With love…MamaRed
We were at the gas station filling our vehicle when a young couple asked if I had a dollar for gas. Well w/gas prices being what they were I gave them $5 and told them to pay it forward and it felt wonderful!
Stella Patrick
A couple months ago – in January I believe, it was pretty cold and harsh. I was running a few errands at the grocery store that is pretty close to me and was on my way home, just leaving the parking lot of the store. I saw a lady walking along with a bag of groceries.
I checked to be sure it was a lady – and I stopped and offered her a lift. Turned out she didn’t live very much further down the road from me and was ever so grateful for the ride on a bitter cold day. It was a small but easy thing to do – something I’d hope someone might do for me if I had to walk on a cold day carrying a heavy bag.
As it turned out I had the opportunity to do this again the next week for another woman. She, too was very grateful and we had a nice chat for the 5 minutes I had her in the car. Both these ladies lived fairly near to me, so they were, in truth my neighbors and I was glad I could help them out.
I think too often we are afraid to do little things like this, but the times that I have, it’s turned out to be a good thing and I’m happy I reached out.
Pam
Last evening while in the checkout line at Walmart I had my things on the conveyor for checkout, waiting for the person ahead of me to finish paying for their purchase.
I noticed the guy behind me only had one item – little Debbie oatmeal pies – it took me several moments (I was quite tired) for it to dawn on me to let him go ahead of me – he only had one thing after all. I told him cheerfully to go ahead – and he was quite surprised and hesitant. I assured him it was fine – he only had the one thing – I didn’t mind.
He thanked me several times and was obviously pleasantly surprised to have such a kindness done. He had an accent and I assume he may have been originally from another country. He was very polite and pleasant and very appreciative. It made me feel good to do such a small thing that made his day a little better.
Pam
My 15 year stint in the corporate world was in the Real Estate department of a bank, collecting on past due mortgage payments.
One day, I called on someone regarding their past due payments. The man who answered the phone was obviously upset and very distressed. After identifying myself, I asked him if he was OK.
Mr. Jones honestly said,
“No. I am not OK. I just came in from the hospital to change clothes and grab a bite to eat. My wife is still there and will take her turn at home when I get back to the hospital. My son fell off a slide at school earlier this week and it was several hours later when the school finally notified us. The doctors performed one surgery, but now his brain is swelling out of the cranium and the doctors don’t know whether he will survive, and if he does how badly brain damaged he will be.”
Now remember, I worked in collections. My ONLY job was to call and find out when payment would be made. However, once I heard that story, I could not bring myself to ask for payment. It was the furthest thing from the mind of Mr. Jones, and I just wasn’t going there. Instead, I began asking questions that were really none of my business.
Sally: “Do you attend church anywhere?”
Mr. Jones: “Yes, but I haven’t gone for a long time. We have been having some financial difficulties and have not been able to tithe as much as we should. I feel embarrassed that I can’t pay my tithe, so I don’t go. I feel unwelcome when I can’t pay tithe and offering.
Sally: “What is the name of the church?”
Mr. Jones: “The church is _____ located in _________ California.
Sally: “OK. Well, listen, you go take care of your son.. I am going on vacation starting when I get off work today. I will check in with you when I return. In the meantime, I will put your record out of the call cue so that no one will bother you for the next two weeks. I pray that your son has a miracle healing
and gets well soon.
Mr. Jones choked out “Thanks” and hung up.
Once I had hung up the telephone, I called directory assistance, obtained the number for the chruch, then called the church.
Sally: “Hello, my name is Sally. I was just talking with one of your members, Mr. Jones. Do you know that family?”
Receptionist: “Yes, but we have not seen them for awhile.”
Sally: “Well, that family is having a really hard time financially just now and Mr. Jones feels embarrassed that he cannot pay tithe so stays away from church. But that is not the reason I called. The Jones family desperately needs their church just now. You see, his son had an accident, has had brain surgery and is not expected
to live and if he should live, is expected to be severely brain damaged. He is at the hospital. The mother is there now. Can you get the pastor over there right away?
The receptionist agreed to tell the pastor of the urgent need of the family and we rang off.
I then called the Unity church that I attended, and requested prayer for the child. Then having done all I could do, I closed out my day and went on vacation, hoping and praying the child would be OK.
When I returned two weeks later, I was called into the Department Manager’s office. I went, wondering what I could possibly have done wrong during two weeks of vacation.
She sat behind her desk with a stern look on her face. She had a file folder on her desk with some hand written notes. She asked if I remembered Mr. Jones. When I said that I did, she handed a folded note to me, then picked up another and read from it.
Basically, it told her what Mr. Jones knew of my efforts on his behalf. (He did not know about the call to Unity – which also initiated a second prayer chain.) The pastor had shown up at hospital shortly after Mr. Jones and I had hung up. Mr. Jones wondered how Pastor knew he was needed. Pastor could only tell that someone named Sally had called and given his receptionist what for about the Jones family situation, but had refused to provide any other details about herself than her name.
Pastor had dropped everything and rushed straight to the hospital. Mr. Jones, remembering that he gave me all those details that he was just too upset to refuse, understood, and knew exactly who had made the call.
The receptionist, in the meantime, had called other church members and explained the urgent need for prayer. They had called others. It seems, a prayer chain went around the world for this child. Apparently, the church was very organized and had a call tree for just such emergencies.
Johnny did not need the second surgery. The swelling went down, he had healed and there was no known brain damage at that time. He was up and walking and talking and reading and wanting to go back to school.
There were other miracles: The church offered to help with any medical bills not covered by insurance. They paid for an attorney to step in and get the school to also provide assistance.. (The surgeon felt the school was somewhat responsible for the severity of the damage because they had not notified the parents for several hours after the accident.) The surgeon discounted his fees. The church offered assistance to help the family get their financial situation back under control. The mortgage payments were current when I looked at his record later that day.
These details were in the note Mr. Jones sent to my department manager. These were what he had told my Manager. There was also a note from the Pastor saying thanks for the call. And a note from the surgeon saying that the healing was definitely a miracle. He (the surgeon) believed in the power of prayer and the family had resisted his requests to call their church.
The note to me just said
Sally, Thanks for your caring & compassionate soul. Your call to our pastor probably saved my son’s life. I am grateful that you cared enough to make the call that I could not bring myself to make. We now attend services every time the doors are open and announce our gratitude to all who come into our sphere of influence. Thank you for opening the door for our return to God. I have sent a note of explanation and thanks to your boss. I hope that was OK. Thank you for sticking your neck out on our behalf. We will never forget the service you provided to our family.
In Gratitude
The Jones Family
The manager then sternly addressed the matter of my getting personally involved with a client. I simply said to her: “Sorry you are upset with what I did. It was done spontaneously out of the need of the moment. Being who I am, I could have done no less. I will probably do it again when the need arises.”
LAUGH.
I was simply way too good at my job for her to threaten any disciplinary action if I ever did it again.
And I DID do it again – many times over the intervening years between the Jones family incident, and the end of my service in that position. When the needs of the families in distress outweighed my need to collect their mortgage payments, I made calls on their behalf – to churches, other family members, local charities – wherever I was guided to ask for help for the family, I did. Usually with excellent results for the families involved and my employer, too.
I didn’t intervene lightly. Only when my insistent intuition would not leave me be and I had to “do something” in order to get it to quiet, would I ever intervene. Then I would pray and ask for guidance, which I always felt I received, fully.
Moral: You never know how far-reaching a single act of kindness will be.
Sally
Note: The names have been changed to protect the privacy of all involved.