A former employee called me shortly before Christmas as she has done for the last few years since she moved out of state to wish me a Merry Christmas and during the conversation I learned she had fallen at work and broke her knee. She is collecting compensation, but it's only 65% of her salary, so I sent her a check. She just called, in tears, to tell me how much she appreciated it.

Kudos to everyone for the wonderful, kind and generous things you have done. And GrammaO - I always return my shopping cart too. It's the right thing to do and only takes a minute. I can't stand when people leave them and they go flying into cars - I even had one hit me!

Wow!! Such inspiring stories. I have had so much going on since November that I am not sure that my listening skills have been exactly up to par, but my friends have sure been there to listen. I am feeling fairly selfish at the moment. I will have to mak sure that I pay a little more attention to other people to as I know everyone is having a hard time right now. Thanks for inspiring me.

When we were in the apartment in town, there was an elderly lady who was trying to shovel the snow off her driveway. My husband went over and asked if he could help, she said she'd appreciate it very much. Anyway, since that day, whenever it snows my husband or I go shovel the snow off her driveway and walk. I've also been helping a friend move to their new home on her days off.

I also return my cart and will even bring a couple in if they're close by where I parked.

Well, I can't take the credit for this idea but I thought it was a good one. I work for a very large company that makes "tons" of money as a result of the work that I and my co-workers do. We have long since learned to never expect anything in return other than our paychecks and we get aggravated every Christmas because they make us pay $10-$20 each to come to our own company Christmas party, and if we don't want to due to the charge they say we have an attitude problem. Needless to say they never give us "anything" for Christmas. So this year they shocked us all by handing out $5.00 gift certificates to McDonalds. It was chinchy but better than nothing. The next morning one of my co-workers said she had decided to donate her gift card to a needy family whom her neighbor had adopted for Christmas, and she invited anyone who would like to do the same. She collected quite a few gift cards to give. Where I live you really can't buy any adult combo with a drink at McDonalds for $5, but those cards that none of us missed one whit, put together, were worth several nice meals for this family. It was a good way to turn a negative situation into a positive one, I thought.

I also make sure I return my cart. I dislike seeing them where they could get hit when someone pulls in. I also have a compulsion to make sure the carts are pushed into the next carts so they are in a straight line. My quilting eye needs to see the straight line I guess! LOL

I always let someone go ahead of me in a checkout line when they have only a few items. I am not in that much of a hurry that I can't wait a few minutes. I usually have a full cart so it makes sense to me not to make them wait through my long list of groceries.

I applaud all the kindness I am reading about! Bravo everyone! You are showing the love of Christ when you do for others!! Let his light shine through me!

My neighbor on one side is blind so I talk to her a couple times a day and run over to help her do all kinds of things. (Her family gets tired of helping her so they ignore her calls!!) She can do much so she is bored all the time. On the other side an elderly couple with no kids or family are dealing with a bout of cancer for him. I am also available for what ever they need. I have a busy life anyway and some times I complain to my husband about their neediness but I would never let them know. I just get tired and have to vent. He helps too and knows where I'm coming from. Does that count?

My daughter and son-in-law were out of work last Christmas and between the school where their 3 children go and church they had a good Christmas. This year the son-in-law has a job so we adopted 5 children from the giving tree at the same school that helped them last year and donated 4 food baskets loaded with food to the school for families. We also donated food to the food baskets at the church. As my 8 year old grandson will tell you, " Nana it is better to give then to get."

I also return my shopping cart to the return holders, it's just laziness not too IMHO. I really need to hone my listening skills. There's a needy family in our church, and I bought a baby bed for one of the babies and contributed $100 to their Thanksgiving meal. I felt I needed to do more at Christmas, but this lady is real independent and doesn't want to take anything, but, she knows we are all there for her. I'm collecting clothing for her children now. It really makes me stop and count my blessings.

I call my daughters school to find out what clothing items are needed. The school has a clothing closet for children that don't have enough clothes - if I don't have what they need, I go to our local thrift store and pick some up, wash them and send them the next day.

I also let people behind me go in front of me to checkout if they have a few items.

I open and hold the doors for older people (to me that is common courtesy) but unfortunately many others don't see it that way.

What a great topic to post here - it will open my eyes to other things that I could be doing :)

thank you