Living a Life of Kindness

Today I was driving in my car listening to the radio, and the host was asking people for little ways to bring sunshine into another person’s life. The people who phoned in had such great ideas that I decided to look for a list as a reminder of how easy it is to add kindness to your daily life.

Here’s a list I found of 100 ways to spread cheer. Let us know your favorites or what special little things you do personally to be a love letter to the world.


• Call an old friend, just to say you are thinking of them.
• Hold the door open for people at a store.
• Invite someone to have lunch.
• Compliment someone on his or her appearance.
• Ask a coworker for their opinion on a project.
• Bring cookies to share at work.
• Let someone cut in during rush hour traffic.
• Leave a waitress or waiter an extra few dollars with your tip.
• Tell a cashier to have a nice day.
• Call your parents.
• Let someone know you miss them.
• Treat someone to a movie.
• Let a person know you really appreciate them.
• Visit a retirement center.
• Take a child to the zoo.
• Fill up your spouse's car with gas.
• Surprise someone with a small gift.
• Leave a thank-you note for the cleaning staff at work.
• Write a letter to a distant relative.
• Tell someone you thought about them the other day.
• Put a quarter in a stranger's parking meter before the time expires.
• Bake a cake or cookies for a neighbor.
• Send someone flowers to where they work.
• Invite a friend to have coffee.
• Recommend a good book to someone.
• Donate clothing to a charity.
• Offer an elderly person a ride to where they need to go.
• Bag your own groceries at the checkout counter.
• Give blood.
• Offer free baby-sitting to a friend who's really busy or just needs a break.
• Help your neighbor rake leaves or shovel snow.
• Offer your seat to someone when there aren't any left.
• Help someone with a heavy load.
• Ask to see a store's manager and comment on the great service.
• Give your place in line at the grocery store to someone who has only a few items.
• Hug someone in your family for no reason.
• Wave to a child in the car next to you.
• Send a thank-you note to your doctor.
• Repeat something nice you heard about someone else.
• Leave a joke on someone's answering machine.
• Be a mentor or coach to someone.
• Forgive a loan.
• Fill up the copier machine with paper after you're done using it.
• Tell someone you believe in them.
• Share your umbrella on a rainy day.
• Welcome new neighbors with flowers or a plant.
• Offer to watch a friend's home while they're away.
• Ask someone if they need you to pick up anything while you're out shopping.
• Ask a child to play a board game, and let them win.
• Ask an elderly person to tell you about the good old days.
• During bad weather, plan an indoor picnic with the family.
• Buy someone a goldfish and bowl.
• Compliment someone on their cooking and politely ask for a second helping.
• Dance with someone who hasn't been asked.
• Tell someone you mentioned them in your prayers.
• Give children's clothes to another family when your kids outgrow them.
• Deliver extra vegetables from your garden to the whole neighborhood.
• Call someone just to say, I love you.
• Call someone's attention to a rainbow or beautiful sunset.
• Invite someone to go bowling.
• Figure out someone's half-birthday by adding 182 days, and give them a cake.
• Ask someone about their children.
• Tell someone which quality you like most about them.
• Brush the snow off of the car next to yours.
• Return your shopping cart to the front of the store.
• Encourage someone's dream, no matter how big or small it is.
• Pay for a stranger's cup of coffee without them knowing it.
• Leave a love letter where your partner will find it.
• Ask an older person for their advice.
• Offer to take care of someone's pet while they're away.
• Tell a child you're proud of them.
• Visit a sick person, or send them a care package.
• Join a Big Brother or Sister program.
• Leave a piece of candy on a coworker's desk.
• Bring your child to work with you for the afternoon.
• Give someone a recording of their favorite music.
• Email a friend some information about a topic they are especially interested in.
• Give someone a homemade gift.
• Write a poem for someone.
• Bake some cookies for your local fire or police department.
• Organize a neighborhood cleanup and have a barbecue afterwards.
• Help a child build a birdhouse or similar project.
• Check in on an old person, just to see if they're okay.
• Ask for the recipe after you eat over at someone's house.
• Personally welcome a new employee at work and offer to take them out for lunch.
• While in a car, ask everyone to buckle up because they are important to you.
• Let someone else eat the last slice of cake or pizza.
• Stop and buy a drink from a kid's lemonade stand.
• Forgive someone when they apologize.
• Wave to someone looking for a parking space when you're about to leave a shopping center.
• Send a copy of an old photograph to a childhood friend.
• Leave a pint of your spouse's favorite flavor of ice cream in the freezer with a bow on it.
• Do a household chore that is usually done by someone else in the family.
• Be especially happy for someone when they tell you their good news.
• Compliment a coworker on their role in a successful project.
• Give your spouse a spontaneous back rub at the end of the day.
• Serve someone in your family breakfast in bed.
• Ask someone if they've lost weight.
• Make a donation to a charity in someone's honor.
• Take a child to a ballgame.

Yes, They are Important

Earlier this week, heaven gained another tiny angel when baby Ethan quietly passed away. We had learned of him too late….and we were unable to provide him with the emergency care he needed to survive. Such a tiny little baby whose life ended far too quickly.

I can still remember like it was yesterday the very first time I was confronted with the death of a baby. Some of you might remember, from the very first days of LWB. Her name was baby Kui, and she had been born with a fairly simple heart defect, but it had gone untreated for so long that the pressure in the main vessels to her lungs rose to a level that made surgery impossible. We didn’t know it at the time. We fundraised for her surgery, sent her off to a top surgeon with such hope, and then I got a phone call saying that nothing could be done. They were going to discharge her with the knowledge that she would soon pass away. I was stunned….I could hardly comprehend it. Surely there was something that could be done for her. Surely someone had made a mistake. But all the doctors we asked for second opinions gave the same tragic news. We were too late. There was nothing that could be done.

The days following that diagnosis were difficult ones for me emotionally. I had her little photo taped to my computer, and her eyes stared out with such a solemn little expression. I publicly wrote asking the question of whether Kui’s life was important. Why would a baby be born, only to be abandoned, and then pass away as an orphaned child, never knowing what it truly felt like to be loved? Did her life really matter to anyone?

My mailbox was flooded with replies. I received hundreds of notes and cards for Kui, each one with the statement, “I believe Kui is important.” Some had letters, some had pictures drawn by children, others had the most beautiful prayers. I saved every one.

Tonight as I was thinking of baby Ethan, I went to the cabinet drawer and took out Kui’s letters. I read each of them once again, and cried for the newest baby who didn’t get his second chance here on earth. I think the hardest thing for me in knowing that an orphaned child has passed away is that there will be no grave, no marker, no family to lovingly save their photos and memories; nothing to really prove that he or she existed. How quickly they could be forgotten. That is why I treasure Kui’s letters so much. Because they are a permanent reminder that a beautiful little girl once lived in southern China, a little girl who left too soon….but who was most definitely loved and prayed over.

In the last six years, I have learned again and again that many babies are born in this world who are too sick to survive. While it never gets any easier to hear the news, I now know with certainty that every day a child spends on this earth has immeasurable worth. They deserve to be remembered. The fragility of their lives should remind us all how precious each and every day is that we are given. Sweet Ethan….I pray you are now being held in the arms of God. May you finally have the gentle comfort that you deserve, with no more pain…..only peaceful, perfect love. We will never forget that your life was so very important.

Amy

In the Blink of an Eye

How often do we race through life so fast, with activities, work demands, and other events, that we don’t enjoy each and every day? Then something happens, something so deep, that it shakes you to the core and helps you to remember how precious each day is. When I was in New York two weeks ago, something just like that happened.

We were on the sidewalk directly across the street from the area of the World Trade Center, when all of a sudden, there was a lot of commotion. Taking a few seconds to try to figure out what was happening….we realized that there was a woman lying on the sidewalk with people all around her. Right behind us there was a group of teenagers sobbing. We quickly learned that the woman on the sidewalk was a beloved choir director from out of town and the kids sobbing were her students who had come to NY to perform that evening at Carnegie Hall. She had suffered from a major heart attack. We found a person who looked to be in charge and asked her how we could help. Splitting up into different groups, we found ourselves sitting and praying with these teenagers. We all felt so helpless as the emergency crews arrived and began trying to save her life.

After she was taken away in the ambulance, we said once last prayer with the group and gave the group leader a hug and then just started walking….stunned by what we had just experienced. Just a block from where we were was St. Paul’s Chapel, the little chapel that stood when the towers came down, without so much as a broken window. We went in, so grateful to have found this little church…..the perfect place to be after watching someone fighting for their life. In this little chapel, there were reminders of all of the people who had come together after 9-11, as well as memorials. We sat there reflecting not only about the woman fighting for her life on the sidewalk, but also about all of the lives lost just across the street from where we were standing.

That evening, not knowing what else we could do, but knowing that we needed to find out how the teacher was doing, I called the police station nearest to where we had been. The officer was so kind and told me that he had just been working on her card. He was able to tell me the hospital where she had been transported. From there, we were able to call the hospital and learned that she had been admitted to a local hospital.....admitted! As I hung up the phone and we all celebrated, because we realized that since she had been admitted…..that meant that she was alive.

Still so much in our thoughts, we learned that last week she had been discharged, and yesterday I wrote her an email just to let her know how much we cared and had prayed for her. I received the most beautiful email back from her today….telling me that her students had performed at Carnegie Hall that evening, with the support and love of all of the chaperones. She began her email - Life is truly amazing and I'm glad I'm still here to enjoy it!

Through all of this….I have thought so much about the fragility of life. What if today was your very last day on earth? How would you spend it? Would you be able to leave this world feeling like you lived it the way you wanted? Or are there things you feel you need to change? I know for me, the experience I had in New York was an important reminder that we need to slow down and enjoy our family and the things that matter. Through the life of this teacher, my own life was impacted as I realized yet again how important every day really is, both to count our blessings but also to try to make a difference. Have you ever had a wake up call such as this one? How did it impact you?

Karen LWB