“This man was forced to give his dog to the Humane Society due to undergoing lengthy hospital stay. This nurse found out and immediately went to the shelter and adopted his dog. She brings him to visit daily and will return him as soon as the man is released!”
This was posted by @_B_S on X today. It made me cry. What a wonderful nurse.
Filed under Blog Repost - Wonderful Posts, kindness
Unsplash
________________
Yesterday my sister-in-law (and more importantly, friend) told me about an incident where she exercises. A lady in the class was really ugly to another lady my SIL likes. The really sad thing is that it wasn’t necessary. My SIL was able to defuse the situation, but you can’t ‘unhear’ ugly, hurtful things.
When a person is being ugly for religious or political reasons, I just don’t understand the motivation. Being ugly will certainly never change anyone else’s mind on a subject. Being ugly to someone else can only be done to hurt the other person, and I don’t see a good reason for that, either.
Maybe I’m missing something, but life is too short for this. Keeping your mouth shut, unless it’s in the defense of someone else, is a good skill to practice – I think of it as a character-building exercise.
Filed under Challenges, character-building exercises, kindness
My husband called me over to his computer last night and showed me what he had just ordered for me –
Brush Rinser, Paint Brush Rinser with Drain
It’s usually $30, but was on sale for Memorial Day weekend for $6! You fill up the ‘tank’ and push the button with the spring to ‘flush’ the water reservoir to get fresh, clean water while you’re painting.
Right now I go to our master bathroom to wash out the small bowl I use, fill it with water, then use it until I need to refresh it, and then do the process over and over as I paint in my art room. It’s no big deal, but this will be wonderful, making it possible to concentrate on what I’m trying to do, rather than the mechanics associated with trying to get my brush clean when changing colors.
I’m amazed that this caught my husband’s eye, or that he realized what a pleasure this would be. What a nice, thoughtful gift!
Filed under kindness
Houston Recovery Center
A surprising thing happened at our routine doctor appointment yesterday.
I noticed that the nice lady who updated our information on the computer in the exam room was an RN. Her name was Bailey and the first thing I noticed was her tennis shoes. They had a really sassy leopard print sole. :0) I had never seen ones like this and I thought they were neat. I mentioned them and she said they were new. I asked her how long she had been working with Dr. Hays and she said 6 months. When I asked her how long she had been an RN, she said since 2020. I told her I was impressed that she got her credentials during that period of time and that she must have a lot of grit and stamina to do all of this during the pandemic.
We finished updating my husband’s info and mine, she asked if it were okay that an intern attend our exam and our doctor came in shortly. When the appointment was over and Bailey brought back our paperwork, she suddenly gave me a quick hug. I must have looked surprised because she said that I was the only one in the six months she’s been here who asked about her background and made her feel special. I gave her a quick hug back and thanked her for HER treatment of US.
This shouldn’t be something that makes us notice. Kindness should be as normal as what USED to be known as “common courtesy.”
Strive to promote ‘common kindness.’
Filed under kindness
Two Choices
What would you do? You make the choice. Don’t look for a punch line, there isn’t one. Read it anyway. My question is: Would you have made the same choice?
At a fund-raising dinner for a school that serves children with learning disabilities, the father of one of the students delivered a speech that will never be forgotten by all who attended. After extolling the school and its Dedicated staff, he offered a question:
‘When not interfered with by outside influences, everything nature does, is done with perfection. Yet my son, Shay, cannot learn things as other children do. He cannot understand things as other children do. Where is the natural order of things in my son?’
The audience was stilled by the query.
The father continued. ‘I believe that when a child like Shay, who was mentally and physically disabled comes into the world, an opportunity to realize true human nature presents itself, and it comes in the way other people treat that child.’
Then he told the following story:
Shay and I had walked past a park where some boys Shay knew were playing baseball. Shay asked, ‘Do you think they’ll let me play?’ I knew that most of the boys would not want someone like Shay on their team, but as a father I also understood that if my son were allowed to play, it would give him a much-needed sense of belonging and some confidence to be accepted by others in spite of his handicaps.
I approached one of the boys on the field and asked (not expecting much) if Shay could play. The boy looked around for guidance and said, ‘We’re losing by six runs and the game is in the eighth inning. I guess he can be on our team, and we’ll try to put him in to bat in the ninth inning.’
Shay struggled over to the team’s bench and, with a broad smile, put on a team shirt. I watched with a small tear in my eye and warmth in my heart. The boys saw my joy at my son being accepted.
In the bottom of the eighth inning, Shay’s team scored a few runs but was still behind by three.
In the top of the ninth inning, Shay put on a glove and played in the right field. Even though no hits came his way, he was obviously ecstatic just to be in the game and on the field, grinning from ear to ear as I waved to him from the stands.
In the bottom of the ninth inning, Shay’s team scored again.
Now, with two outs and the bases loaded, the potential winning run was on base, and Shay was scheduled to be next at bat. At this juncture, do they let Shay bat and give away their chance to win the game?
Surprisingly, Shay was given the bat. Everyone knew that a hit was all but impossible because Shay didn’t even know how to hold the bat properly, much less connect with the ball.
However, as Shay stepped up to the Plate, the pitcher, recognizing that the other team was putting winning aside for this moment in Shay’s life, moved in a few steps to lob the ball in softly so Shay could at least make contact.
The first pitch came, and Shay swung clumsily and missed.
The pitcher again took a few steps forward to toss the ball softly towards Shay. As the pitch came in, Shay swung at the ball and hit a slow ground ball right back to the pitcher.
The game would now be over.
The pitcher picked up the soft grounder and could have easily thrown the ball to the first baseman. Shay would have been out and that would have been the end of the game. Instead, the pitcher threw the ball right over the first baseman’s head, out of reach of all teammates.
Everyone from the stands and both teams started yelling, ‘Shay, run to first! Run to first!’
Never in his life had Shay ever run that far, but he made it to first base. He scampered down the baseline, wide-eyed and startled.
Everyone yelled, ‘Run to second, run to second!’
Catching his breath, Shay awkwardly ran towards second, gleaming and struggling to make it to the base.
By the time Shay rounded towards second base, the right fielder had the ball. The smallest guy on their team who now had his first chance to be the hero for his team.
He could have thrown the ball to the second baseman for the tag, but he understood the pitcher’s intentions so he, too, intentionally threw the ball high and far over the third-baseman’s head.
Shay ran toward third base deliriously as the runners ahead of him circled the bases toward home. All were screaming, ‘Shay, Shay, Shay, all the Way Shay’
Shay reached third base because the opposing shortstop ran to help him by turning him in the direction of third base, and shouted, ‘Run to third! Shay, run to third!’
As Shay rounded third, the boys from both teams, and the spectators, were on their feet screaming, ‘Shay, run home! Run home!’
Shay ran to home, stepped on the plate, and was cheered as the hero who hit the grand slam and won the game for his team.
‘That day’, said the father softly with tears now rolling down his face, ‘the boys from both teams helped bring a piece of true love and humanity into this world’.
Shay didn’t make it to another summer. He died that winter, having never forgotten being the hero and making me so happy, and coming home and seeing his mother tearfully embrace her little hero of the day!
_________________
We all have thousands of opportunities every single day to help realize the ‘natural order of things.’
So many trivial interactions between two people present us with a choice:
Do we pass along a little spark of love and humanity, or do we pass up those opportunities and leave the world a little bit colder in the process?
A wise man once said“Every society is judged by how it treats it’s least fortunate amongst them.”
_______________
Forwarded by my friend, Marsha.
Filed under kindness
Eccopartners
Yesterday my husband and I took a large trash can full of metal leftovers to our local Greenwood Recycling center. We had only been there once before, so we weren’t sure what they accepted or what there hours were.
Ecchopartners 2
Two big, muscular young men came out and not only directed us to the large bin where we should put our metal, but actually came with us, lifting the large can we had so laboriously put in the back of the truck and putting it on the ground. We had some trash, since my husband had been cleaning out the shop and dumped other trashcans into this one, but they accepted about 2/3 of the can and then helped us get it back securely in the truck.
I offered to adopt one of the guys. He had a shirt on, and called me, “Ma’am,” but he laughed long and hard about my offer, saying I had made his day. NICE of me, wasn’t it. :0)
Filed under kindness
The Mind Journal
I’m finally learning to TELL PEOPLE when they do or say something that touches me. I don’t know why it’s taken me so long; but instead of dwelling on that I’m just trying to not miss a chance to say something that just might make someone’s day, might brighten their spirit a bit, might bring a smile to their face.
As this quote says, it only takes a minute and it might mean a lot.
Just do it.
123RF
“An eye witness account from New York
City, on a cold day in December,
some years ago: A little boy,
about 10-years-old, was standing before a shoe store on the roadway, barefooted, peering through the window, and shivering with cold.
A lady approached the young boy and said,
‘My, but you’re in such deep thought staring in
that window!’
‘I was asking God to give me a pair of
shoes,’ was the boy’s reply.
The lady took him by the hand, went into
the store, and asked the clerk to get half a dozen pairs of socks for the boy. She then asked if he could give her a basin of water and a towel. He quickly brought them to her.
She took the little fellow to the back
part of the store and, removing her gloves, knelt down, washed his little feet, and dried them with the towel.
By this time, the clerk had returned with
the socks. Placing a pair upon the boy’s feet, she purchased him a pair of shoes..
She tied up the remaining pairs of socks
and gave them to him. She patted him on the head and said, ‘No doubt, you will be more comfortable now.’
As she turned to go, the astonished kid
caught her by the hand, and looking up into her face, with tears in his eyes, asked her.
‘Are you God’s wife?’ “
_____________________
Stories forwarded to me by my friend, Marsha.
Today
_______________
My friend Marsha sent me some beautiful stories I’d like to share. Here is one of them –
_______________
Author and lecturer Leo Buscaglia once
Talked about a contest he was asked to judge.
The purpose of the
Contest was to find the most caring child.
The winner was:
1. A four-year-old child, whose next door
neighbor was an elderly gentleman, who had recently lost his wife. Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old
Gentleman’s’ yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there.
When his mother asked him what he had
said to the neighbor, the little boy just said, ‘Nothing, I just Helped him cry.’
Southern Living
I’ve never seen this quote by Kahlil Gibran before. I really like it. :0)
I wish the world a kindness pandemic – where each person feels a real need to be kind to everyone. I want it to start with me and infect people in rings that spread all the way across the planet. I hope there were no vaccine for it and that, once you are infected, you can’t get rid of it. Let it snow!
Filed under Favorite Quotes, kindness
It’s quite overcast right now and we might get some rain. I couldn’t be happier about it.
In about an hour I’ll go down to get our mail (if it’s not raining), checking to see if the trash has been picked up. It’s supposed to be picked up on Tuesday. When I left yesterday to get my hair cut, I had to stop and use the trash bag I carry in the truck to pick up the strewn garbage. When I got to town, I called the trash people. The lady said she would create a work order so the trash would be picked up yesterday. I HOPE it was actually picked up. If not, I will call them again with some choice words.
I’m on DAY 20 of my daily yoga practice. My husband told me I was “doing a good job” yesterday. I tried to get him to practice with me, but he scoffed at me, eating some Fritos…
I still don’t know if the Christmas cards I’m trying to paint will turn out reasonably or not, but I look forward to working on them each day.
I’ve been finding a lot of talented people’s work lately. It’s such a joy to discover someone creating breathtaking art in all its forms and be able to share it with you.
Have a great Thursday!
Filed under kindness
Filed under Attitude, caring, Encouragement, kindness
Filed under Awe-Inspiring Photography, caring, Encouragement, hope, kindness
creativeartworksblog 