Taryn Skees is a mom just like me. She’s a writer and a speaker who is passionate about the power of kindness.
But Taryn’s drive to spread the message of kindness didn’t come from a spontaneous act of kindness that transformed her life. It came from the birth of her son.
Taryn’s 9-year-old son, Aiden, has a rare craniofacial condition called Apert ... Read More
Last week I posed a question that had come across my desk from a Fargo mail carrier. He asked, “Where does citizenship end and kindness begin?”
His job often puts him in positions where he feels compelled to help. A lost cell phone, a wandering child or an emergency that requires a call to 911.
We are taught to be nice and ... Read More
I need you. Really. I’m living in the 21st century, but my brain is stuck in 1985.
I’m a pre-teen dancing around my mom’s living room greatly disturbing the tenants in the apartment below because I can’t get enough of Whitney Houston’s new music video “How Will I Know.”
What? You don’t remember it? Well here you go!
In 1985, I didn’t have ... Read More
You know what I just realized? I do not know the name of the woman who delivers my mail.
Usually my mail carrier just leaves the letters in the box by the road and eventually I wander out and collect them. But every few months, she pulls her truck into my driveway and hops out to hand me a package or ... Read More
Children’s hearts are precious. They love big, forgive quickly and are incredible readers of the emotions around them. Sort of like a magnet, they attract the feelings of others and wear them as their own.
Sometimes that’s good and sometimes that’s bad. It can be bad when it locks up the mind in fear and confusion, but it’s incredibly beautiful when ... Read More
The hardest thing to do when I’m feeling down is the one thing I know will help me feel better. It’s not exercise or sleep or eating healthier meals.
It’s kindness.
I know when I’m at my worst, I have to get my eyes off myself and put them squarely on the needs of others.
It works. Every time.
But it doesn’t just work ... Read More
My friend’s father-in-law recently died. It came on suddenly. It wasn’t supposed to happen that way. They weren’t prepared. I wonder, when it comes to losing someone we love, if we’re ever really prepared.
The hole that’s left while we are mourning seems like an endless chasm, and yet it’s the perfect size for kindness. Kindness shown through phone calls, flowers, ... Read More
They say what goes around comes around. If you consistently treat others with kindness, you can expect to have a pretty big kindness bank account to draw from when life throws you a curveball.
I’ve seen it happen again and again in my own life, and so has Mary Derosier from Red Lake Falls, Minn., although she and her mom were ... Read More
Walt Disney once said, “The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.”
That works well for amusement parks, but it also works well in the realm of kindness.
Alicia Stewart is a mom who feels frustrated with the way girls sometimes treat each other. When she saw it happening in her daughter’s second-grade classroom, she decided to put ... Read More
I really should have kept a list of all the people who helped me during my battle with breast cancer. It would be filled with the names of family and friends who delivered meals and picked up kids and sent cards.
But it would also be filled with the names of strangers who helped me get through each day after my ... Read More
