A Lifetime of Favors
Woody Davis was the kind of neighbor every community wishes they had. Throughout his lifetime in the small town of Corbett, Oregon, Woody used his jack-of-all-trades skills doing favors for people -- "thousands of good deeds." He took care of their needs on his own initiative, without ever asking anything for himself. Diagnosed with ALS, Woody faced what he bravely called "dying slowly". But the t... posted on Oct 07 2012, 4,753 reads

Students Step Up the Kindness
How amazing would it be to start the first day of school receiving random acts of kindness from your fellow students? Last year, a hundred students at Kansas State huddled early in the morning to see just how they could pool their time, money and creativity to surprise (and perhaps shock!) their fellow students with unexpected generosity. From a welcome applause to paying for meals to wowing a dri... posted on Oct 02 2012, 3,253 reads

The Habit of Starting
"The biggest reason people fail at creating and sticking to new habits is that they don't keep doing it. That seems obvious: if you don't keep doing a habit, it won't really become a habit. So what's the solution to this obvious problem? Find a way to keep doing it. When you look at it this way, the key to forming a habit is not how much you do of the habit each day (exercise for 30 minutes, write... posted on Oct 01 2012, 23,371 reads

No Greater Joy: Photos from Around the World
Steve McCurry is an American photojournalist best known for "Afghan Girl" a haunting photograph of his that first appeared in National Geographic. Of his work he says, "Most of my images are grounded in people. I look for the unguarded moment, the essential soul peeking out, experience etched on a person's face. I try to convey what it is like to be that person, a person caught in a broader landsc... posted on Sep 28 2012, 52,571 reads

Reading Into Grief
"I had written a memoir three years earlier and couldn't find a publisher...I was burnt out. At 29, I contemplated retirement. I wasn't only disappointing myself. My dad, Lawrence J. Epstein, has always been my mentor and biggest cheerleader. A retired English professor who has published ten books on subjects ranging from comedy teams to folk singers to Jewish affairs, he and I often spent hours t... posted on Sep 27 2012, 6,993 reads

Somebody Tagged Me!
"'What is it?' Sabrina asked. One glance inside and my suspicion was confirmed. Lying inside were 2 tupperware containers. I could not see their contents from my bird's eye view but I could see a fresh mango and a bag of chocolates peeking from the corner of the bag. And the incredible aroma had already permeated the front office area. 'Someone has tagged me with an anonymous act of kindness!' I r... posted on Sep 26 2012, 8,284 reads

Man & Dog: A Picture that Moved the World
John Unger just wanted a friend to take a nice photo of him and his 19-year-old arthritic dog, Schoep, before it was too late. He got that photo -- and world validation, too. When Unger's friend, professional photographer Hannah Stonehouse Hudson, posted the unusual photo -- of Unger holding his sleeping dog in the waters of Lake Superior -- on her Facebook page it went viral. A week later, the ph... posted on Sep 22 2012, 82,703 reads

The Ripple of One Small Act
When Hilde Back sponsored a young, rural Kenyan student, she thought nothing of it. She certainly never expected to hear from him, but years later she did. Now a Harvard graduate and a Human Rights Lawyer for the United Nations, Chris Mburu decided to find the stranger that changed his life. Inspired by her generosity, he started a scholarship program of his own and named it for his former benefac... posted on Sep 21 2012, 4,415 reads

The Kindness of Strangers...Varies Around the World
"Rousseau once wrote that "cities are the sink of the human race." But as my experiences in New York and Rangoon made clear, no two cities are the same. Places, like individuals, have their own personalities. In what cities is a needy stranger more likely to receive help? What sort of community teaches a citizen to withhold compassion toward strangers? As a grown-up social psychologist, I have spe... posted on Sep 18 2012, 18,404 reads

Free Money Day: Giving Is Common Cents
Last year on September 15, people at over 60 locations worldwide handed out their own money to complete strangers. Participants committed to give two small coins or banknotes to strangers, asking these strangers to pass one of them on to someone else -- as a symbolic gesture, not a donation. Quirky? Yes. Likely to elicit questions and dialogue? They hoped so. The idea was for this simple exercise ... posted on Sep 14 2012, 14,297 reads