After visiting the Salon du Cheval (Horse Expo) at the Paris Expo center (Porte de Versailles), Alexandra (my daughter) and I walked in the pouring rain back to our car. On the way, a car with Belgian plates stopped to let us walk across the street. We continued on our way. Alexandra and I both waved a grand merci. About twenty metres on, the same car slowed down by us with the window rolled down. I was expecting to be asked directions of some sort. Not at all. The woman in the passenger seat extended a very handsome blue umbrella (wooden handle and stem) to us. “Please take this,” she said, with the driver nodding enthusiastically. Now, THAT deserves un vrai grand merci, a big thank you, or dank u wel. It is so beautiful to be on the receiving end of such a random act of generosity. After walking a little drier thanks to these Belgian strangers, I was encouraged to hand over my parking stub with its remaining 2 hours on it to a car that waited to snap up my empty space. Proof that one little act can have a snowball effect. And it also kindles positive feelings about our society. I would like to send some positive vibes to my the countrymen and women of my natal country.
I have surfed up that Feb 13-19 was designated in 2006 by the Canadian (B.C. based) Kind Acts site as Random Acts of Kindness Week….to be repeated (according to Frugal Village, absolutely)? I cite Kindness Inc as well which promotes many ways to be randomly kind. I also found on Kind Acts site a host of other sites dedicated to random acts of kindness, including this very studious foundation in the US: Acts of Kindness. Finally, I found Craig Harper, Aussie motivational speaker, promoting such acts as well.
What a lovely story! And a very happy coincidence to discover your blog, which I found while searching “random acts of kindness” on Google’s blogsearch engine
I write about simple acts to make a small difference in a big world each day on my own blog, Daily Mitzvah ( http://dailymitzvah.blogspot.com ), so it was especially cheering to find your site and be even more inspired. Thank you for taking the time to share these strangers’ kindness with the world!
ce n’est pas la conscience des êtres qui détermine leur manière d’être, mais leur manière d’être qui détermine leur conscience!!!
les belges ont cette gentillesse rare…
Thx Jen X. Aside from the great pseudonym, enjoyed your blog (no comment!). And, also for Laetitia: it is all the more important to encourage these acts of kindness and generosity (and I’m not just refering to paying out alms to the homeless) for people living in busy cities where time and space is at a premium, causing stress, bad humour and outright selfishness.