The Little Things
In the wake of a hurricane, Beverly Jordan goes door to door, delivering emergency relief. At one dilapidated house, the young owners respond to Jordan's arrival by offering a bag of diapers and five bags of food for her to pass on to others in need. In his senior year of college, Peter Strupp finds himself penniless, seeking refuge in soup kitchens, and unable to afford his rent. The night before... posted on May 14 2010, 3,604 reads

The Hardest Work You Will Ever Do
The day Mary Cook's fiance fell to his death, it started to snow. "It snowed almost every day for the next four months, while I sat on the couch and watched it pile up," she reflects. When friends and community members insisted on helping her, Cook finds herself struck with feelings of guilt, pride, and helplessness. "One morning, I shuffled downstairs and was startled to see a snowplow clearing m... posted on May 12 2010, 5,776 reads

An Artist's Life
"I walked into this little painting gallery and nobody was there, just a room full of paintings- not paintings that I found very interesting, but I was killing time." So begins an unlikely adventure in which Richard Whittaker learns about a 97-year-old painter still at work and giving watercolor workshops even though he was blind. Literally a few hours after setting foot in Claremont Fine Arts, W... posted on May 11 2010, 3,255 reads

A Mother's Love
There are mothers who will spend today missing sons and daughters fighting overseas. There are women who have lost children in those wars, for whom Mother's Day will never be the same. And then there is Eva Briseno. Joesph Briseno Jr., Eva's 27-year-old son, is one of the most severely wounded soldiers ever to survive. A bullet to the back of his head in Baghdad marketplace in 2003 left him paraly... posted on May 09 2010, 2,454 reads

Grannies for Social Change
On May 7th and 8th, five hundred grandmothers from across sub-Saharan Africa will gather in Swaziland. The purpose? To raise awareness of the AIDS epidemic sweeping their continent. Currently, these grandmothers are caring for scores of grandchildren who have been orphaned by AIDS. At this first International Grandmother's Gathering in Africa, they hope to take steps towards creating a hopeful fut... posted on May 06 2010, 1,796 reads

Blind 17-Year-Old Excels in Track
He has skied, done karate, completed triathlons, wrestled, and become such an impressive skateboarder that he attracted the attention of legend Tony Hawk. And, since the age of 2, he has been blind. Now a junior in high school, seventeen-year-old Tommy Carroll runs track and cross-country races by holding his teammates' elbows and listening to their descriptions of distances, obstacles, and the te... posted on May 02 2010, 1,776 reads

Interior Designing for Kindness!
When Christina Van Blake lost her job in February 2009, she fought off depression by offering to design a room in exchange for her client initiating three acts of kindness, asking only that her client pay it forward. Since then, Van Blake has documented 80 clients and 240 acts of kindness in six months! She and fellow designer Joyce Heathcote now run "Design it Forward," a pay-it-forward interior... posted on May 01 2010, 3,941 reads

The Sound of One Hand Clapping
Richard Whittaker reflects on art and coffee with a stranger: "One morning I looked up from my cup of tea in a local coffee shop and was surprised to see a man at work on a little painting sitting at a table nearby. I walked over, took a peek, and was surprised again. It was really good. I complimented him on his work. He seemed to welcome the interruption, and I asked him a few questions. He was ... posted on Apr 29 2010, 4,772 reads

Doctor's Kindness Restores Sight
When William Noriega developed cataracts in both eyes at age 40- and was unable to afford a simple operation to fix them- he never expected an ophthalmologist to restore not only his sight for free but also his faith in humanity. Dr. Bryant Lum gifted his services to Noriega after reading a letter in the newspaper from his father: "My 40-year-old son...can no longer drive or work. He has lost the ... posted on Apr 27 2010, 3,202 reads

A Poem Is
Nancy Weber shares: "As the director of a creative writing organization, I have heard a lot of amazing, wildly creative poems and stories written by young writers in our workshops. However, I was absolutely stunned by this beautiful poem by Sadie McCann, a five year=old girl from our workshop at the Brooklyn Public Library, Bay Ridge branch. If she hadn't written it right in front of me, I would n... posted on Apr 26 2010, 8,897 reads