Random Acts of Kindess

I was happy to see this post this morning. I work at a hotel and we have a university nearby. A parent who stays with us often asked a favor to leave her son's car at the hotel while he is home in California over Christmas break. I told her of course we would take care of it for her.

Yesterday, I arrived at work after a sick day and there was a fedex on my desk from this mom. I opened it, and it contained three beautifully wrapped books ("A History of Love", "What I did for Love" and "Love Notes") with a note saying thanks for my help, and here is some reading in anticipation of your upcoming wedding.

I have never received such a thoughtful gift. I can't wait to return the favor to someone else!

Happy holidays everyone

This is a fantastic thread especially with the holidays coming up. It doesn't hurt to do something extra special that will mean so much to other people. I like the stories so far. Here is mine.

I was flying back from Ecuador last week and my flight was cancelled so the airline gave us vouchers for food and hotel. In the morning at the airport, I had a breakfast voucher left for $10. I only spent $5 of it and the cashier asked if there was anything else that I wanted because the balance would be lost if not. So I turned around and told the guy behind me that his coffee was on me (well not really since it was a voucher). He was so grateful and it felt good to do even though it was so simple and cost me absolutely nothing. But what was even better is that some other guy came up to me later and said was a sweet thing that I did. Hopefully those people will "pay it forward" and do the same to someone else!!

YAY I love happy stories!!!

Hmm, well I don't really believe in sharing random acts of kindness that I've done (there's something about doing something kind and then "bragging" about it to me that seems to defeat the purpose - I dunno, I'm weird), but I agree that even the smallest act can totally make your day. That man that helped you with your coffee probably forgot about it ten minutes later, but it made your day!! It just goes to show that the small things DO matter!

This has happened to my parents a few times on separate occassions... At the "local" coffee shop (Timmy's for those Canadians!!), my parents have pulled up to the window to pay at the drive through, and the car in front of them paid for their coffee!! It's only a few bucks, but it totally makes their day.

I remember once, years and years ago, my mom and I were driving somewhere and the car broke down. It was stinkin' cold outside and blizzarding and I believe this was the time before cell phones were in everyone's cars (lol!). We managed to pull into a gas station, I can't remember if that's where we broke down, or if we managed to haul our butts there - this guy worked there, but he went out into the freezing cold for easily an hour and helped us on our way. I know he worked there and all, but he could have just called for a tow truck and shrugged us off, but he was literally outside freezing for so long to help us. NO ONE wants to be outside in Canada in a blizzard, but he did for two strangers!

I guess acts of kindess is really catching on and spreading, because I saw on one of the morning shows today how one nice person in a drive through Starbucks line bought the coffee for the car behind her and that kind act spread from car to car for the next two hours with each car learning of the kind act and paying it forward to the car behind them. It was nice to wake up to a story like that on the news!

I forgot how something simple like that can make a person's day. I used to do that whenever I was at a toll plaza, pay the toll for the car directly behind me. A small sentiment, but it goes a long way!

Let's keep paying it forward!