a simple act of kindness

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

today i experienced one from the woman who worked at the local cafe. my son ( 14 months ) was having a particularly bad day - teething, big weekend of visitors, just grumpy anyway - and he was grizzling as i searched for something for us to have for afternoon-cheer-up-tea.( on a $2 budget )
all the woman did was say " oh he looks tired and so do you, its difficult isnt it, when they have these days"
i could have hugged her on the spot, the simple act of empathy / understanding really helped.
it actually made my day and the remainder of the afternoon was a breeeze really, rather than being a trial.
so...........tell me when, if ever, this has happened for you, or when you have felt the urge to do it for a stranger, for no reason other than the impulse to 'help'.

sometimes its nice to believe that humans arent so horrible after all.

― donna (donna), Tuesday, 13 May 2003 06:17 (twenty-two years ago)

ah well, it was a good thought at the time.

― donna (donna), Tuesday, 13 May 2003 06:51 (twenty-two years ago)

It's a lovely thought Donna. Perhaps the infrequency with which it seems to happen is the reason for a dearth of answers. You're right though - it can totally make your day, even if it's just a little thing. And it's just as satisfying being the person doing the act of kindness. ILXors - get your butts out there and do some simple acts of kindness. Go on.

― Mark C (Mark C), Tuesday, 13 May 2003 08:00 (twenty-two years ago)

It's really hard to engage in acts of simple kindness when your brain feels like it's screaming inside your head. So I just scowl and growl along and make everything worse. :-(

I guess I'm also afraid that if I did something like that, I'd be perceived as patronising or whatever.

― kate, Tuesday, 13 May 2003 08:02 (twenty-two years ago)

I let a woman use my mobile phone, and she offered me a quid to pay for the call she made but I said it was okay.

― jel -- (jel), Tuesday, 13 May 2003 16:25 (twenty-two years ago)

I left a bunch of books I'd just bought on a tube train a couple of months ago. I wasn't hopeful, but I checked with lost property, and they had been handed in.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Tuesday, 13 May 2003 16:31 (twenty-two years ago)

"infrequency with which it seems to happen"

this is a bad thing.

― A Nairn (moretap), Tuesday, 13 May 2003 16:34 (twenty-two years ago)

Cincinnati. Vine Street. I was going to Bogarts to see Ween. I had a big ginormous doob in a tube in my sock. They checked my sock, said "wow, thank you for this, have a nice night, get outta here, don't come back" and I went out front to mope cuz I wasn't gonna get to see Ween. My friends all chipped in a couple bucks and bought me a ticket from a scalper. One guy in particular traded shirts with me so I could get past the door-nazis. Ween played a 20-minute version of "Awesome Sound" that night that was indeed awesome. I get high with a little help from my friends.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 13 May 2003 16:40 (twenty-two years ago)

I helped a woman carry her stroller up the steps in a subway station before I went to Ally's birthday FAP. I always try to offer that when I see moms by themselves, as my mom raised me by herself for a little bit.

― hstencil, Tuesday, 13 May 2003 16:59 (twenty-two years ago)

When a bus drove through a large puddle and splashed me, a woman on the street asked if I was okay and called the bus driver an asshole. That made me feel better.

― rosemary (rosemary), Tuesday, 13 May 2003 17:14 (twenty-two years ago)

a woman who works in the deli where I had lunch said "have a good day" when she didn't have to, and that struck me as pretty nice.

― hstencil, Tuesday, 13 May 2003 17:59 (twenty-two years ago)

The Russian woman who owns the Subway where I sometimes have lunch regularly teases me about looking like Karl Marx, ever since I grew a beard. And one of her employees always remembers my "regular" sandwich. This makes me happy.

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 13 May 2003 18:03 (twenty-two years ago)

A few months ago, there was this one busdriver who was always working on the route I took home from work, and he always smiled at everyone and said "hello" and "have a great day" and stuff, so one day I brought him some cookies from the bakery where I work. I didn't work at the bakery from the end of December until the middle of January because I was in Glasgow, but the next time I was on the bus, he said he had a present for me that he'd been carrying around since just before Christmas, and he gave it to me and it was a little pink pen that lights up, and he said "I saw it and I thought of you, because you light up my day"! He is the sweetest man in the world.

― kirsten (kirsten), Tuesday, 13 May 2003 18:11 (twenty-two years ago)

My bar keeps a pickle jar with my name on it and everyone puts their Lone Star caps in it for me. They know I collect them. I'm always happy to go up there and find it full.

― That Girl (thatgirl), Tuesday, 13 May 2003 21:55 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm such a regular at my local coffee bar that the folks there don't even bother to punch my "buy 10 get the 11th free" card. Every so often they'll just say "oh this one's on us"

― Chris Barrus (Chris Barrus), Tuesday, 13 May 2003 22:12 (twenty-two years ago)

I try and be kind to people often. I live in a place where people are a bit meanspirited and chip-on-their-shoulder-ish so I try to redress the balance a bit. I'm always happy when people are kind to me.

I am meanspirited towards people with bumper stickers that say 'Magick Happens' because I think they are crap.

― estela, Tuesday, 13 May 2003 23:19 (twenty-two years ago)

I give out lots of freebies at the restaurant. If you've been nice to your waitress there could be a drink in it for you...beyond that courtesy impresses me. I'd like to think that act the same way, but I probably don't.

― Matt (Matt), Tuesday, 13 May 2003 23:26 (twenty-two years ago)

My mother's most important lesson:

Every person you see is precious and valuable. Take care of them, because someday you're going to be somewhere away from your loved ones and others are going to have to take care of you.

― I'm Passing Open Windows (Ms Laura), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 02:42 (twenty-two years ago)

Every time I stay over at HSA's house, I buy an egg roll at the same cafe on the way to work. Yesterday, I gave the man a £2 coin, thinking it was a 50p coin, and stopped to get change. I didn't realise my mistake until lunchtime and realised I had no money.

This morning, I went to get another roll, having completely forgotten about the change thing yesterday morning, and when I went to pay, he said "Hey, you gave me too much money yesterday!" and instead of taking money from me, he gave me the change from the previous day.

I was flabbergasted, not just that he had remembered, but that he was honest enough to tell me and reimburse me. It was really, really nice, and now I've got £1 so I can get a snack!

I will forever go back to that cafe as long as I live around here now, I am so impressed. (Not just that, but it's a nice cafe, as well.) And I will give them free advertising - it's called Blues and it's on a little court just off Greys Inn Road near the intersection of Clerkenwell Road. If you are in Clerkenwell, go there and eat. They're very friendly. And the food is good, too.

― kate, Thursday, 15 May 2003 09:48 (twenty-two years ago)

I like this thread. I do nice things for stressed students a lot at the moment. Oh god. Not like that.

― Archel (Archel), Thursday, 15 May 2003 11:13 (twenty-two years ago)

six months pass...

I have been having a hideous day because of a massive financial transaction at work plus a much-larger-than-i-initially-thought problem with the confiscation of my school ID plus a very odd email from Columbia financial services and I was pretty much ready to bag everything in and head to Mexico or something when I was heading to the subway station earlier (I had to go meet with a couple deans prior to being allowed to register, if at all because of the financial services issue, for next sememster--and I was late to the appointment already). So I get to the station and I totally realized my Metrocard was missing. I'm like ready to completely lose my shit crying when some guy gave me his and just told me to keep it. I think that's the nicest thing someone's ever done for me, at least someone I don't know really well.

― Allyzay, Tuesday, 18 November 2003 20:53 (twenty-two years ago)

I got an e-card from Sarah yesterday & I was pretty bowled over by it to be honest. It really made me smile & was so unexpected it was great!

― Pinkpanther (Pinkpanther), Wednesday, 19 November 2003 09:52 (twenty-two years ago)

eighteen years pass...

the other day i posted "love at first sight" by kylie minogue as a fun friday youtube on facebook, dedicated to my boyfriend. this dj dude i don't really know commented "i have this on 12" vinyl." my first impulse was to reply "Fascinating" or "Good for you," like i don't care that you have it on vinyl, dj dude who i've seen dj and thought was very bad. and i did reply "Good for you." but i thought about it hard and realized it's so ingrained in me to go for a snippy or cruel response when some stranger i'm not particularly fond of says something innocuous to me that i deem to be rude or tone-deaf, and i'm ready to try something different, because it's getting old, so i deleted the reply and said instead "I bet it sounds great." it's such a dumb thing, who knows if that guy will care or not, but it's wild how much better about myself i felt. like, if someone comes at you with some gauche remark, and you extend kindness instead of cruelty, that's such a great way to get someone on your side instead of to repel them. which ultimately is much more satisfying to the ego isn't it. i'm thinking of it like - cruelty is the quick ego dopamine hit that leaves you feeling depleted afterward, kindness is the long game of ego reward.

― Nedlene Grendel as Basenji Holmo (map), Sunday, 23 January 2022 00:21 (four years ago)

kindness to others is kindness to yourself.

― Nedlene Grendel as Basenji Holmo (map), Sunday, 23 January 2022 00:34 (four years ago)

great post map I need to keep that in mind more

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Sunday, 23 January 2022 00:38 (four years ago)

likewise

― Saxophone Of Futility (Michael B), Sunday, 23 January 2022 00:44 (four years ago)

Otm.

― they were written with a ouija board and a rhyming dictionary (Neanderthal), Sunday, 23 January 2022 01:02 (four years ago)

Someone I admire a lot went on a vision quest thing during the holidays and she came back and said her guiding concept/realization she had was "Soften."

― Ima Gardener (in orbit), Sunday, 23 January 2022 02:04 (four years ago)

this is the way

― terminators of endearment (VegemiteGrrl), Sunday, 23 January 2022 02:06 (four years ago)

Go on a vision quest with a set of Oblique Strategies cards

― Hideous Lump, Sunday, 23 January 2022 04:47 (four years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.