Have you ever had kindness show up just when you needed it?
If your answer if yes, when you’ve finished your morning coffee, please send me your story. That’s what this column is all about. We share stories of the kindness you’ve given and how it made you feel, or the times a kind act happened when you needed it the ... Read More
I’m sitting at a table with a large tray in front of me. An assortment of half-finished puzzles and dozens of puzzle pieces are waiting for assembly.
As I look at the tray, I struggle to make sense of it. I see portions of my life: time I’m spending with my family… sitting in my chair writing…cheering on my ... Read More
You know what’s super fun? Putting a post on social media asking people to share their favorite kindness stories.
Try it sometime. It’s an immediate boost to your day and a great way to remember there are a lot of kind things happening quietly behind the scenes in our world.
Here are a few stories people have shared with me recently.
From Beth ... Read More
The things that break our hearts are often the things that make us powerful. I am regularly reminding my children and their friends that someday they will have the opportunity to use each hurt to help another human.
A dear friend shared the following story with me, and although I was sad for her younger self, I know it is these ... Read More
Danette Jensen lives in Goodridge, Minn., about 70 miles from the Canadian border. She and her husband run DJ’s K9 Country, a boarding facility with more than 20 kennels and a large training room.
I guess you could say Danette is dog crazy. She is certainly an expert in the field. She has a radio show and people call in with ... Read More
I have yet to meet someone who says, “Nope. I’m not a kind person and I have no intention of changing.”
We might agree that we have a little work to be done in the kindness area, but generally people seem to think they are doing a pretty good job of treating others well.
In a study of 100 young people with ... Read More
They say there are ties that bind, things that happen in our lives that leave us forever connected and intertwined with others.
But what happens when decades begin to deteriorate our communication with those people?
As Caryl Kiser from southeastern Ohio shares, those ties not only continue to hold, they grow stronger with each knot of kindness.
“Five years ago, after moving back ... Read More
I was standing in the shower sobbing. With the fan on and the water running, it was the only place in the house I could hide until my torrent of pain had been released.
Never before had I needed to expel so many emotional toxins from my system. And never have I needed to again. But back in May of 2015, ... Read More
I went to visit a friend in prison a few weeks ago. It was the first time I had been in the belly of a correctional facility since I was a child. Back then, I went with my mom to visit her husband. This time, I got to escort a young friend to see his mom.
Two different prisons, one for ... Read More
I love it when I sit down and the words are easy. They just flow, they don’t take too much mental energy and they don’t make me weepy when I re-read them.
These words are not going to be easy. I can tell. Because these are the words that keep coming to my mind: Forgive me.
At the beginning of the school ... Read More
