Dear readers,

It’s that time of the month again to prepare for the feels, and re-establish a little hope for humanity!

Rounded up below are seventeen inspirational stories from the month of August that spread a little positive karma around for a change!

Big Heart For Big Bird – Hits from the comments: “It’s making me all teary and giving me the snuffleupaguses.”

What We Should Be Spreading Is Kindness – We should all do our part to help out small businesses when we can!

Many Marvelous Miracles! – Sometimes you have to look for the little miracles when times get rough.

(more…)

I’m fourteen at the time, attending the Kansas City Comicon. My family isn’t particularly rich, so I only have five dollars for the entire weekend. As all those who attend conventions know that five dollars doesn’t get you very far. I see a plushie of an anime character that I particularly enjoy; unfortunately, it’s out of my price range at thirteen dollars. I rejoin my family at the hotel diner, overwhelmed by the bustle of the convention and upset over not being able to purchase my toy. My mother is understanding, and I have received tissues from a passing waitress. Finally, another waitress approaches.

Waitress: “What’s wrong, hun?”

Me: *In tears* “I was at the convention, and I saw something I really, really wanted, and it was thirteen dollars, and I only have five!”

The waitress gives a confident smile.

Waitress: “Aw…”

She begins rifling through a wallet as I watch, wide-eyed. She hands me all the money I need to buy the plushie.

Waitress: “Just pay it forward, you hear?”

I was in tears of glee, and my parents were shocked and happy! I still have my Sebastian plushie. Thank you, kind waitress!

It has been a long day at work and I just want to buy my chips as quickly as possible, so I run into the local supermarket and stand in line for the self-checkout. I am calmly waiting for the young woman in front of me to finish up her purchases. She has quickly rung up everything but seems to be having trouble with this one item of precut fruit and flags down a worker who happens to be walking by.

Young Woman: “Hi, sorry to bother you, but this pineapple doesn’t have a barcode, and I don’t see an option for it under the produce tab. Am I missing something?”

Worker: *Looks over the item* “Oh, these are supposed to have a printed label by weight already on them. This one must have gotten missed somehow. Let me go get you one.”

The young woman looks to her left at the line of two of us now waiting.

Young Woman: “Okay, that would be great, thank you. I’m just going to pay out my purchase here while you do, and then get back in line so I’m not holding everything up.”

The worker looks confused but nods and walks off. Shocked at this young person’s thoughtfulness, I speak up.

Me: “That’s very nice of you, thank you.”

The young woman just shrugs as she swipes her card and waits for the prompt to sign.

Young Woman: “It’s no big deal. I mean, you don’t know how long something like that might take, and it’s not fair to hold you guys up for my pineapple. I’m in no rush to get home or anything, so I don’t mind waiting.”

She gives me a smile and turns back to sign as prompted when the worker comes back with her pineapple.

Worker: “Here you go, miss.”

The machine has just printed out her receipt and I wonder if she is going to go ahead and ring it up now. She glances at the container and then looks back at us before taking it with a laugh.

Young Woman: “Yeah, it would be something like that. Awesome. Thank you again, and I’m just going to take this to the end while I bag before getting back in line.”

I was so impressed by her selflessness when others would just take advantage of the situation or hold others up for their convenience. I quickly spoke up again and offered to buy her item. She was shocked and uncertain but I insisted and quickly took the item and scanned it before sending it down the belt towards her unpacked items. She thanked me with a wide, sincere smile before quickly bagging her items and wishing me a good evening. Best $3 I ever spent towards encouraging our youth that kindness IS worth it.

Years ago, I worked in a library, and my boss decided we needed to have an art and writing contest for kids around Halloween. After talking about it, we decided that the prize would be a pizza party for the winners while watching a fairly new PG-13 dark fantasy film. We settled on Hellboy — the good one with Ron Perlman.

After our winners were selected, we sent home letters to inform them and also to let parents know the nature of the film so they could check on it. The parents all signed the permission slips attached to the letters and we prepared to party.

Each child had been invited to invite one guest. Two of the winners were brother and sister and they both invited their mother. My heart sank and my boss got nervous when we saw her. While we had a friendly and warm relationship, we were concerned that, because of her very stringent fundamentalist leanings, she might not want to sit through a film about dark magic. I was frankly surprised she had agreed to let the kids watch it.

We both resigned ourselves to Mom storming out of the place as soon as Baby Hellboy appeared.

Guess we will learn about being judge-y. Mom stayed for the whole thing. At the end of the film, all the kids were vocal about how much they liked it, but it was Mom who stole the appreciation show.

Wiping her eyes with napkins, she sobbed, “That was one of the most beautiful films I have ever seen! I told these two,” indicating her kids, “that that is how they need to choose a partner. I told them they need to look beyond a person’s exterior to see how good they are inside. She loved him because he was beautiful inside! You don’t see many movies like that these days. Thank you for sharing that!”

One of our favorite programs ever.

I work at a rather small dry cleaning place. A man comes in to pick up a suit with his young son. Usually, our customers’ children are too shy to talk to us.

Son: “Do you know how old I am?”

Me: *Taken aback* “No! How old are you?”

Son: “I’m four and a half years old.”

Me: “Wow. I’m twenty-one. I’m old!”

Son: *Thinking hard* “Yes.

I continue the transaction with the customer. 

Son: *To his father* “Dad, can I press the green button?”

Customer: “Of course you can!”

The customer puts in his card into the machine, and I go to type in the price, pressing the green button when I do.

Son: “But I wanted to press the green button!”

Me: “Oh, I am so sorry. You can do it now.”

He presses the green button, and two receipts come out, one for the customer and one for me. 

Me: *To the customer* “Would you like your receipt?”

Customer: “Yes, please!”

Son: “Daddy, can I have that piece of paper?”

Customer: “No, sorry, Daddy needs this one.”

Son: *To me* “Can I have that piece of paper?”

Me: “I’m sorry, but I need this one. But I can print out another one for you.”

Son: “Yes, please!”

I print out another receipt for the little boy. This one is wider and longer than the one I gave his father. 

Me: “You’re getting a big one!”

I hand him the receipt. 

Son: “Ooooh! That is big!”

The customer thanks me and says goodbye as he leaves. They turn the corner when I hear:

Son: “Bye-bye!”

Me: “Bye!”

The boy comes running into the store again.

Son: “Bye! I’ll—” *starts thinking* “—see you tomorrow?”

Me: “No, you won’t, sweetie.”

Son: “No… I’ll see you some other day, then!”

Me: “Yes, you will! Definitely!”

Son: “See you then! Bye!”

After he left, I couldn’t stop smiling for the rest of the day. That little boy made my entire week!