BS: Random acts of kindness

Subject: BS: Random acts of kindness
From: ranger1
Date: 10 Sep 11 - 08:52 PM

I've recently been the recipient of a bunch of random acts of kindness. From a certain Canadian who sent J-boy and I a CD, to Kat who sent me a 1935 booklet on Rocky Mountain National Park, to some pretty awesome campers at the park, one gave me an official Nova Scotia Natural Resources hat and another this evening who gave me a bunch of flies that he'd tied to give to my nephew. Oh, and that olddude guy who is chock-full of random acts of kindness for everyone. I'm just feeling all kinds of warmth this evening :)

Subject: RE: BS: Random acts of kindness
From: maeve
Date: 10 Sep 11 - 09:08 PM

"Glow, little glow worm, shimmer, shimmer..."

I was gifted by a certain ranger with a mighty fine cd . Thank you.

Subject: RE: BS: Random acts of kindness
From: michaelr
Date: 10 Sep 11 - 10:39 PM

I was flipped off recently by a driver with a "Random Acts of Kindness" bumpersticker...

Subject: RE: BS: Random acts of kindness
From: katlaughing
Date: 11 Sep 11 - 12:42 AM

I saw a neat one the other day which said "Karma happens!"**bg**

That olddude aka Dan-the Generous Man, has been busy. Over the years, I've been a lucky recipient of all kinds of Mudcat kindness. It does light up one's heart! Giving does the same thing.

Glad the booklet made it there.:-)

kat

Subject: RE: BS: Random acts of kindness
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 11 Sep 11 - 02:10 PM

What a lovely thread! So nice to hear about goodness and kindness. Even small acts like these radiate out and give pleasure and comfort. I shall try this week to do the same as you folks, and spread a little happiness around. Best wishes, Eliza.

Subject: RE: BS: Random acts of kindness
From: fat B****rd
Date: 11 Sep 11 - 03:21 PM

I've had good luck messages, birthday wishes, music in various forms, an 'Olddude' special and quite a lot of frendly stuff. Oh, aye, and a Yellowbelly CD in a good cause.
I would like to think I have reciprocated in some small ways.
Love and best from Charlie

Subject: RE: BS: Random acts of kindness
From: Charmion
Date: 12 Sep 11 - 12:26 PM

Someday soon you'll pay it forward, and the beat goes on.

Subject: RE: BS: Random acts of kindness
From: katlaughing
Date: 12 Sep 11 - 02:37 PM

i've always liked this:

So many gods,
So many creeds,
So many paths
That wind and wind,
While just the act of
Being kind is all the
Sad world needs.

-Ella Wheeler Wilcox -

Subject: RE: BS: Random acts of kindness
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 12 Sep 11 - 11:20 PM

Thanks, katlaughing. I just posted that on Facebook.

Subject: RE: BS: Random acts of kindness
From: Fossil
Date: 13 Sep 11 - 07:00 AM

Well, reading this thread put me in mind of an item in our local/national newspaper this morning:

An American couple: came to New Zealand for the Rugby World Cup. looked up on the internet to find a hotel in Eastbourne (a pleasant little place on the opposite side of Wellington Harbour). Found it, booked it, travelled all those miles to be here.

Found that what they had in fact booked was a hotel in Eastbourne, UK. They had been charged quite a lot; in UK pounds for the privilege too.

When they went to the tourist information office in Eastbourne, NZ to find out where this hotel was located and the extent of their mistake became clear, the lady at the tourist office gave these lost strangers a bed for the night in her own house, fed them and looked after them until they could make other arrangements.

Bless them, Kiwis are the most caring hospitable people in the world and going the extra mile seems to be the national motto. No wonder I like living here...

Subject: RE: BS: Random acts of kindness
From: katlaughing
Date: 13 Sep 11 - 10:24 AM

And they have been so for a long time, Fossil. My uncle had to spend a year convalescing in NZ before the Marines would even think of sending him home; he was that badly hurt on Guadalcanal. Anyway, he never could say enough good about the Kiwis who took care of him. One of the best times in his life was when his wife and he went there, in the 1980s, to revisit the folks he knew in that year as a "temporary" Kiwi.

ChanteyLass, glad you liked it, too.:-)

Subject: RE: BS: Random acts of kindness
From: olddude
Date: 13 Sep 11 - 12:30 PM

Making friends for the world to see Let the people know you got what you need With a friend at hand you will see the light If your friends are there then every thing's all right

Elton John

Subject: RE: BS: Random acts of kindness
From: ranger1
Date: 16 Oct 11 - 09:03 PM

Today someone who I let into the park last week because she didn't have any cash came back, paid for last week, paid for today and then handed me $10 and told me to take care of the next people who didn't have any cash.

Subject: RE: BS: Random acts of kindness
From: GUEST,999
Date: 17 Oct 11 - 12:39 AM

Tami, thanks a helluvalot for putting a lump in my throat and tears in my eyes. My t-shirt sleeve got it all.

Dang.

Subject: RE: BS: Random acts of kindness
From: vectis
Date: 17 Oct 11 - 10:56 AM

My bike died on me this Saturday when I was miles from home. A lovely guy with a van stopped, put the bike in the back and took me to my front door which was out of his way. Aren't there some wonderful people in the world?

Subject: RE: BS: Random acts of kindness
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 17 Oct 11 - 02:20 PM

My friend Janet had a BIG problem yesterday with her bank card at an ATM. The thing kept her card and flashed up a big red notice saying she'd entered an incorrect PIN three times. (She'd entered the correct one, once only!) She fled into the bank (luckily still open) and a very kind woman phoned the relevant department. They at first refused to let her have the card back (it's normally destroyed and a new one issued) but eventually they did. The woman got it for her from the machine and she signed some forms. Poor Janet burst into tears. What the kind lady didn't know was Janet is looking after her very old Mum day in, day out; she's slowly dying and in constant pain. This lady got her a drink of water and took her hand for a little while until she'd calmed down. A real angel. What would we do without these lovely folk who find the extra energy to help and calm the stressed and desperate? God bless her, I say.

Subject: RE: BS: Random acts of kindness
From: open mike
Date: 17 Oct 11 - 05:56 PM

The book by this same name is inspiring....
random acts of kindness--the rest of the name...
is "and senseless acts of beauty"

http://www.amazon.com/Random-Kindness-Editors-Conari-Press/dp/1573248533

this book has also inspired this web site...
http://www.randomactsofkindness.org/

Subject: RE: BS: Random acts of kindness
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 17 Oct 11 - 10:44 PM

The luck of the draw: I have been helping a friend whose home was foreclosed upon last month. The house didn't sell at auction on the courthouse steps, so the bank offered to pay him $2000 if he would empty the house "broom clean." This meant hiring a 30-yard dumpster, and he has no credit. Friends helped him get the extra deposit on rent (he has a job, he will pay it back) but I paid for the dumpster. He'll pay me back.

We had four days, and as we surveyed the mess (leftover from a late life-partner who had a hoarding gene) we wondered if we could fit it all in. And then along came the scrap metal people. Kind of an odd sort, but they always seemed to arrive just when we were thinking we couldn't do it. It literally kept us going! They'd tote off large metal objects (freezer, dead washer and dryer, pool furniture, metal scraps, etc.) and between the various folks who passed by, saw the dumpster, and asked if we had anything they could have, they probably toted off half-again the volume of the dumpster. One bad sort came by at what must have been 3am and helped themselves to yard power tools in the back yard, not so good and a police report was filed, but the rest of them were actually just trying to make ends meet and we had a mutual need.

My friend has moved into a modest apartment, he has a safe place and can close and lock the door and sleep comfortably. After paying a few people back he'll have some extra cash. The is the "it takes a village" non-random act, made possible by small random acts along the way. :)

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Random acts of kindness
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 18 Oct 11 - 06:48 AM

A lovely story, SRS. If these kind people didn't come to the rescue, whatever would happen to us in our hour of need? There are of course nasty, hard and cold folk who couldn't care less, but I try to focus on the good and to copy it in a humble way. These kind acts spread and influence people to do the same. I truly hope your friend enjoys his apartment. He has a very good friend in you!

Subject: RE: BS: Random acts of kindness
From: open mike
Date: 18 Oct 11 - 12:42 PM

too bad that your friend had to lose his house...
glad you were able to help him...

Subject: RE: BS: Random acts of kindness
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 18 Oct 11 - 01:21 PM

my story is about a Jacqui C shawl which is warming me right now

Subject: RE: BS: Random acts of kindness
From: gnu
Date: 18 Oct 11 - 01:31 PM

Rough stuff. I hope your friend makes out okay SRS.

Subject: RE: BS: Random acts of kindness
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 18 Oct 11 - 02:53 PM

He's a classic example of the foreclosure crisis in the banking mess that is in the U.S. He's relieved to get away from "the house that keeps on taking." It was cute, but expensive. Short story: his partner died (there is a look at the U.S. health care crisis in his story) and a house once paid for by two couldn't be supported by one.

I've picked up items at the curb before, but I'll never look at that process in the same way again. And I think it's time to get back in the the Freecycle email list. I have some things I can send out in the world to those who need them. I read about Susan (W y s i w y G) getting great items and handing off stuff all of the time. It takes some discipline to keep on top of that free marketplace, but the exchange is useful and falls under the "acts of kindness" heading more often than not.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Random acts of kindness
From: GUEST,999
Date: 18 Oct 11 - 02:55 PM

Waiting in a checkout line with about twenty items. Needed them all at the time. (Shin bone's connected to the thigh bone type of thing.) I keep a running tally in my head, but that time I just plain lost track. I was about a buck and a half over due to sales tax--something there wasn't in my old province of Alberta. As I was deciding which item I'd have to do without, a fellow I'd never seen before plopped a toonie down to cover my shortfall. He said someone had once done that for him. It happens, and when it does it's nice.

Subject: RE: BS: Random acts of kindness
From: maeve
Date: 20 Jun 12 - 08:01 AM

I arrived at chorus rehearsal last night to find a fellow alto had bought me three volumes (#1,3, and 5) of the Dover editions of Child's "The English and Scottish Popular Ballads" to replace some of my books that burned. Who would even think of that at a library booksale, with a little child to mind at the same time? I am amazed and grateful- such kindness!

Sometime try a filter search for "kindness", and read some of the several threads on Random Acts of Kindness in the BS section.

Subject: RE: BS: Random acts of kindness
From: maeve
Date: 20 Jun 12 - 08:11 AM

corrected:
I arrived at chorus rehearsal last night to find a fellow alto had bought me three volumes (#2,3, and 5) of the Dover editions of Child's "The English and Scottish Popular Ballads" to replace some of my books that burned. Who would even think of that at a library booksale, with a little child to mind at the same time? I am amazed and grateful- such kindness!

Sometime try a filter search for "kindness", and read some of the several threads on Random Acts of Kindness in the BS section.