One day I was at the gas station by my home and this young guy was in there counting out change to buy gas. He ended up with 2 bucks and some change and went outside to pump the gas. I gave the clerk some $ and told her to put on his pump.
Here's what was cool about this. A few days later I was at the station and same clerk was there. She told me that the guy came back in after the pump had gone over the amount and told her that the pump was broken.

I love that! Good things happen to good people, I think.

Last year DH and I were in England, wandering around the town near Warwick Castle. DH saw a heavy man in a wheelchair who had parked himself outside a store. I thought the man was waiting for someone in the store, but DH realized something was wrong. DH approached the man and asked if there was anything we could do. The man's face lit up and he said, "Oh yes please, I'm having a terrible time getting up this hill." DH grabbed the wheelchair and pushed him uphill to his destination. The man thanked us very graciously, but it gave DH such a happy jolt, we should have thanked him.

For the rest of the day I had to look at the silly grin on DH's face. He was so giddy because he had helped someone in need. But I like that silly grin. :-)

i remember two random acts that i committed clearly, and each with a touch of humor:

when i was about ten, my mom and i came out of the grocery and saw an elderly lady struggling with a cart brimming full of groceries. i asked her if i could help, got her keys, pushed the cart then loaded the bags into her car. i swear she thought i was robbing her!

in october 2001, my high rise building in downtown LA had a practice evacuation. i was the top floor, so we were last out. a group of people walked by and looked horrified and scared to see people evacuated out of a tall building- they were pointing and covering their mouths in shock and fear, so i went up to explain that it was only a practice evacuation. they were french, so i had to use my long-dormant french skills to explain it wasn't an emergency, just practice. that was the first and last time i had to speak any french outside of class!

I greet street people with a smile and friendly word.

I was sitting at my gate at MIA day before yesterday when a woman sat next to me and seemed rather flustered. She kept looking at me and finally pulled out her boarding pass and showed it to me with a questioning look on her face. I gathered that she spoke no English.

I looked at her boarding pass and assured her with hand signs that she was in the right place. She asked me about a half hour later, "St. Maarten?" I tried to make her comfortable once again in reassuring her that she was at the right gate.

When boarding began for first class she jumped up and seemed concerened. I asked her (in hand signs again) to show me her boarding pass. She was in group 6 for boarding. I was in group 2.

I calmy got her to understand to just wait. When they called her group, I motioned for her to go to the boarding line and she seemed grateful. It was nothing at all, but I was glad to help her and was concerened in the fact that I kept watching to make sure she got on board.

The first thing I thought of was my time in Lille, France when our train was disembarked enroute to London and we were left waiting for hours due to a bomb threat. Not understanding the announcements in French we weren't quite sure what was going on. We were ever so grateful when a nice Frenchman explained the announcements to us as I'm sure we looked a bit confused. And, that wasn't the first time a stranger has assisted us in our travels with no requeste. The way I look at it....what goes around, comes around.

Therefore, I will always be willing to assist the language challeneged traveler like myself. :) Lord knows I've been there and any help you can get is much appreciated.

I would like to tell a story about receiving a random act of kindness.

I was in SF at the Macy's Men Store on Stockton with a sort of elderly family family. She suddenly said she felt dizzy. I walked her outside not realizing her purse was left on the counter in Macy's.

She collapsed and it seemed as though she had a stroke. I was so scared. The clerk from Macy's came running out with her purse. I thanked her. But in the meantime a SFPD arrived and said that getting a taxi would be quicker than calling for an ambulance. OK...several people started "looking" for a taxi. But in the meantime I was holding this family member while sitting on the sidewalk. An elderly homeless lady a few doors up came over and said "she needs to be kept warm" and put her blanket over my family member. Nooooo, it was not clean but OMG, talking about a little angel.

The SFPD stopped a taxi, my family member was put in it. I took the blanket over to the homeless woman and tried to give her some money along with so many thank you's. She looked at me and said something along the line of "I don't want money my dear for helping another human being". Ooooh gulp. I had to get into the taxi..no time for long conversation but to this day I think of that lovely homeless lady and wish I knew how to reach out to her. And btw, the taxi driver was a Muslim and said prayers as we drove to the emergency room at Kaiser Hospital on Geary. So many acts of random kindness all within say 30 minutes which will remain in my memory forever.

What a great story, LoveItaly.

Hi there Statia, actually it got me teary writing the post. I will never forget that lovely homeless lady and for years I kept an eye out for her when in SF but I never saw her again. I will never forget the taxi driver either. Two angels for sure. Hugs!

Cigelcanta:
"Kindness is never random."
How sad.
P

Yes, it should be part of everyone's daily life.

Me, too, LoveItaly. :)

Mimi....it's so nice to see you around here. I've been traveling a lot recently for various reasons and not able to check in as much, but still thinking of you and "J" often.

I try to set a good example for my daughter, particularly on the subject of how to treat people. I was rather proud of myself today for being able to successfully give directions to a gentleman in my very badly broken Spanish (along with a variety of hand gestures). Knowing "salida", "aqui" and "a la izquierdera" made a big difference in my world today.

Begans, you remind me of an experience I had about ten years ago in a supermarket. I was at the greeting card section as I had a couple of birthday cards to buy. A gentleman came up and stared at the cards and than tried to talk to me. His language was not Spanish or any other European language that I could figure out. I tried to figure out what he was trying to communicate but it was so confusing. He finally pointed to his ring finger of his left hand. OH, an anniversary card!!! I steered him to the Anniversary cards and he found one that said 10th Anniversary. He grinned from ear to ear and in his own way thanked me and happily walked to the cash regsister. A happy memory.

We just returned from New Orleans and tipped EVERYBODY. Even store clerks that normally nobody thinks to acknowledge were left some extra money. Our couple of dollars here and there didn't hurt our pocketbooks at all and may have meant a lot to somebody who was struggling to keep their store open.

Since I am uncomfortable telling about my own acts of kindness, I will tell you about being on the receiving end of kindness:

Coming home from a budget vacation with our two toddlers, we got a flat tire on a country road in Florida (driving a borrowed car 'cause our old clunker wouldn't have made it that far). My husband took all the baby gear out of the trunk and set it on the grass to get at the spare. The spare was a donut. Put that on, discovered he had put the baby gear on a patch of grass infested with red ants! Got that cleaned up, drove to a gas station. Had to buy a tire. We only had $14. The clerk - a young guy - realized we didn't have enough money to pay the whole bill, we owed like $30. He gave us the address, changed the tire, and asked us to mail the money.

Wow!

We mailed the money and a small gift certificate, along with a letter to the owner of the gas station. Imagine what that meant to us!

Just this Saturday, we went to the Rolling Stones outdoor concert (woohooo!) and used a park 'n ride to take the public transit shuttle to the concert venue.

After the concert, some girls who were a couple of people ahead of us in the shuttle line, asked if anyone knew where their hotel was. They had been separated from the their SOs and had no idea how to get to the hotel from the bus terminal.

It was late and it had been raining all afternoon and evening. They were quite thankful that we offered to drop them off at their hotel since they didn't even know at which bus stop to get off.

It was a short ride - less than 10 minutes but it would have taken them at least 50 minutes to walk it - if they knew where they were going! The hotel told them they could walk from the bus terminal to the hotel!

They sweetly offered us $ when they got out of our car, which of course we declined. My "payment" was knowing that these ladies would be better travellers next time as they would be sure to take a hotel business card upon arrival so they'd know how to get back to their hotel at least!

Enjoy-la!

Not travel related and not random but I teach free fitness classes to coworkers 2-3 days a week so we can have fun and relieve stress while getting to know each other.

Yesterday one of my regulars in the class brought me abook about eating ice cream for breakfast and also brought me 3 pints of Ben & Jerry's. I don't know if that should be considered kind or cruel on her part but it is darn good stuff.

I like to leave time on a parking meter for the next person who needs the parking space.
Annika

It was about a week before Christmas and I was at a store buying a present for a party. I running short on time and was in a hurry.

The person in line at the check-out looked like she didn't have much money. She was buying a bunch of little stuff that looked to me that she didn't need. Then, of all things, she was short a dollar. I was aggravated and in a hurry so I gave her a dollar.

When the clerk rang up my $10 purchase, she then gave me 50% off because I had helped the lady in front of me out.

Here I got a return of $4 on the 1$ I gave. And I wasn't being nice, I was more irritated than anything.

Anyway, it made think to start slowing down and thinking of others.

SAB, thanks for posting this question. I try to show kindness to others along the way each day and it truly brings me such pleasure while helping someone out. Taking just a few extra seconds to let someone out in traffic or to thank someone for helping you in a store means so much to that person. The other day as I drove through McDonald's, I asked to speak to the Manager. When the workers heard this, they froze! The Manager came to the window and asked if something was wrong. I said, "Absolutely not, I just wanted to tell you how great your staff is. They always greet me politely and never get my order wrong!!!" He was so pleased and you should have seen the beaming faces on those employees! My children used to be horrified when they saw me do things like this, but now they are understanding how important just taking an extra minute to help or compliment someone is.

An old friend died suddenly last week from a blood clot at the age of 55. She was always such a giver to everyone she met and because of many acts of kindness, she made lasting friendships throughout our community. In her obituary, her children wrote that in lieu of flowers or any other "fanfare", please help someone in need today, always remembering how much our mother had helped others along the way. I thought that this was so wonderful and would definitely make a difference in lots of folks' lives.