Category: Be Kind

When I was in kindergarten, we had a whole lesson about what to do when you find a lost wallet. We acted out make-believe scenarios in which one of us would be the person who drops the wallet, one would be the person who finds it and another would be the officer at the police station. Funny, we never talked ... Read More

I have a confession. People in uniform make me nervous.

I’m fine with a doctor’s coat or a fireman’s jacket, but put a police officer’s crisp navy shirt and peaked dress cap in front of me, and I get a little shaky. Maybe I have a deeply hidden guilty conscience. I’ve never had a bad experience with authority; it’s just that ... Read More

I imagine, one day, when they’re very old and can’t get around quite as well as they do now, Gene Hanson and Darlene Jackson Hanson will sit next to each other and say, “Do you remember when…?”

Only there is no way they will remember it all. Not because their minds will be failing, but because of the abundant life they’ve ... Read More

Have you ever been driving down the street, carefully obeying the rules of the road, when all of a sudden someone cuts you off?

You’re forced to hit the brakes because some madman is either driving like a bat out of Hades or didn’t check his mirrors well enough to notice you were there.

How about those times you walk into the ... Read More

I’m afraid I’ve forgotten what it’s like to have small children. How is that even possible? My kids are 12, 11 and 6. It’s not like they’re adults. They are definitely still in need of guidance and discipline, but life is a whole lot different (dare I say easier?) than when they were toddlers.

I see moms walking through the grocery ... Read More

What do you want to be when you grow up? I sure hope you’re not one of those people who thinks they are already too old to decide. Isn’t that what the new year is for? New beginnings?

I see the commercials on TV telling me I should be skinny or try a new exercise machine or buy a book to ... Read More

My friend was telling me a story about her son who is a freshman in college. He noticed a peer consistently walking to class without a coat. So he gave him his own.

No fanfare. No conversation or touching exchange of words as the coat was quietly laid on his desk. Just an offering that says, “I see you and I ... Read More

I’m rocking back and forth, tossing actually, like a woman on a boat bracing herself before the next wave sends the entire contents shifting across the deck. There is a storm happening in my head.

You know what I love about this time of year? The Hallmark Channel. I can sit for hours watching cheesy holiday movies.

They usually involve some small town charm and an act of kindness that probably wouldn’t ever happen in real life. Or maybe it would.

More often than not, when we do random acts of kindness, we never hear about it again. We don’t ever truly know the impact it made on the other person. We just have to trust that kindness worked whatever magic in that person’s life that was needed at that exact moment.

But every once in a while, an act of kindness ... Read More