Kindness Starts With One®

The person who inspired me to look for the good in everyone was Ivan Duran. He was my principal. I already had a tendency to see the good, but Ivan really cemented the idea. We worked in a high needs school and he encouraged the teachers to find at least one positive about every student every day.

Only two years after building our first house together, my husband and I embarked on our first major relocation of our lives that would take us further away from friends and family that we loved and the house we had just built. Moving to the Midwest was a big change for these New Yorkers, and while I was excited to be...

My "one" is my best friend, she's always been there for me and i always see her going around and spreading joy. Before a show she goes up to people holds their hands and says how amazing they will be and how beautiful/handsome they are.

Bobby was the neighborhood welcome wagon. She was never without a smile, spending her time volunteering at Crisis Control and my school. She took meals she prepared to families in need. At the age of three, I went with her to a fallout shelter to give food to a man who had become a recluse. She stood up for those at...

My "One" is Christine, a former student of mine. When I had breast cancer she was my cheerleader, my rally flag, and my heart. To show her support and to remind me of my own courage, she asked her mom if she could get her head shaved. Not caring what others thought, she had her beautiful locks cut off and...

My ‘one’ is none other than my significant other my husband. Moving from South Africa to New Zealand without family is a task itself, Kes my husband always reminded me that being positive and having faith even on our darkest days will pull us through anything. There were times and days when I thought twice about being away from family...

Grannie Annie was one of the most interesting people I know. When I was little, she carried out the biggest random act of kindness by looking after me and my sister when my parents were at work. The memories of painted pictures, made-up games with household ornaments, and walks in the park fill my mind, wrapped in a blanket of...

Meet my daughter, Kyrie, She has always been the one who supported and encouraged me, always. Regardless of where she was (Marines), she has always been my inspiration for doing my best.

Coach Benhalim is my ‘one’, because she sees something in me that no other person has before. I’ve been through some rough times with sports and other people putting me down, but Coach B. was able to bring me back up. I truly feel that she cares for my well being. This is evident because she shows it by pushing me...

Nia Z. Sherar is the most inspirational and hardworking human on this planet. Nia had the dream of planting corn in Africa to help feed the impoverished people. She made the dream of assisting those in need in Africa a reality. She traveled to Kenya with her own money and began giving out microcredit loans to women. She then started...

My name is Rishika Jeyaprakash. I am a kind fifth grader at Mason Intermediate. Kindness is important to me because it always puts a grin on someone’s face. At school if someone is sad, I try to put a smile on their face whether it means to get goofy or to get messy. Whenever I come across people who need...

Over the past few years, my eyes have been a bit more open to opportunities to show a little more kindness to others. An easy way to do that for me has been to compliment someone! You never know what people are going through these days, and something like that can really brighten someone's day! There was one particular time...

My blind and autistic son Pauly is my motivation and "Hero". Since Pauly cannot see and talk we have relied on music to sooth and call him. I know firsthand the power and happiness that music gives with Pauly and we want to bring that same joy to others. My son has inspired me to start "Paulys Project" in...

I have just finished my first term as the new Head Teacher of the Dharma Primary School. Dharma is the first primary school in the United Kingdom to be based on Buddhist values, with mindfulness at its heart. As a practising Buddhist, loving kindness is central to both my personal practice and the school’s ethos. Forgiveness is a companion to...

I’m Marie. I’m a wife, mother, visual artist, and cancer survivor. I grew up in Appalachia with very humble roots. My parents used to have my older sister pay for my school lunch because I gave my money away every day to others and came home hungry if left to my own devices. Even at an early age, I loved...

My name is Zoe, and I'm a student. Inside the high school, everyone is trying to prepare us for adulthood. I constantly feel the stress to quit being a child and grow up, yet when I look around, I see childhood nastiness all around. People swear and insult others to try to act cool, while others are bullied because of someone...

My father had a very Catholic sense of kindness towards other people that he learned growing up and then modeled for us as children. I recall, as a young boy, riding in our family station wagon after church on Sunday, slowing down as a man stepped out of the woods. He’d climb in the backseat with my brothers and me,...

When I graduated from college I dreamed of being a television news reporter. Having no experience I had to start small: at a dinky little cable station in Naples, Florida, a town I had never heard of before. I put my time in covering sea turtle rescues and unknown celebrities until I finally got my big break in the form...

My name is Madison Peach Steiner, I am the founder of Peach's Neet Feet, and after almost five years of running a non-profit based on the platform of kindness and the science of caring, I see the world through a lens of compassion. I believe one act of kindness can be the foundation for great change in the world. 
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My name is James, I’m 27 years old and I’m a Development Practitioner living in Mzuzu in Malawi. My work involves working with people in rural communities. Most of the people I work with are poor and live on less than a dollar. All my childhood life I wished to work as a Banker, however all this changed when I...

On a typical Saturday night, similar to most adolescents, I was browsing through the apps on my phone. Feeling cozy, I nestled myself under the covers of my bed in polka dot fuzzy socks, an over-sized Avengers t-shirt, and pajama pants that were adorned with green and blue stars. Needless to say, I would never face the humiliation of the...

My name is Nicole La Ha Zwiercan, and to me kindness is life changing.
 
Before getting into why kindness is so important to me, I'd like to first say sadly, I wasn't always
this way. By no means did I go out of my way to be mean to people, but I didn't go out of...

One afternoon, my friends and I were painting a banner for our high school homecoming in the hallway but kept having to go inside of the girl’s bathroom to wash off our messy brushes. I noticed a girl standing in the bathroom quietly sobbing to herself. Everyone kept passing this girl pretending she wasn't even there. I myself had spent...

My whole life has been dedicated to the search for meaning in chaos. A voyage for the one true way to enlightenment, to recovery, to being well, to find inner peace. To fit. It comes from growing up in a complex family dynamic (or to put it another way a family that was well...screwed up). It comes from knowing you...

My name is Peggy Filer and I’m a high school health teacher near Seattle, WA. Fifteen years ago two of my students asked me to be the advisor of their new Random Acts of Kindness Club and I said yes. I asked what we would be doing and they laughed and said they didn’t know – they were random! Perfect,...

I’m Lemeeze Davids, a 20 year old Blogger and Art Student at Stellenbosch University.

I live in South Africa, and we have this Zulu word, “ubuntu”, which is basically all about human kindness. The word “ubuntu” is about seeing yourself in your community and in others. I am, because we are. It’s about smiling at strangers as you pass them, it’s...

My name is Marceen Farsakian. As a first grade teacher, I try to center myself around kind, caring people. Teaching young children is my happy place. During my thirty years of teaching it has always been my belief to teach the whole child. To me, meeting the social and emotional needs of a child is just as important, if not...

I used to think that kindness was a word that wasn’t relevant in today’s adult world.  It had been very important in elementary school and, as I got older, it seemed too simplistic.  The adult world can’t be bothered with such childish concepts, I thought.  As I grew into my 30’s, the complexities of the world and the struggle...

When I was 12 years old, I already knew that my teen years were going to be the worst years of my life. I was right; I was a total outsider, bullied at school and neglected at home. I felt completely alone and isolated in my small town.

Turning my desperation for help into a passion for helping...

Hello, my name is Travis, and I am selfish! Yup, as the youngest of four growing up, I was spoiled rotten. If some was good, than more was better. A good friend of mine told me that I suffer from “Not Enoughness!” It’s true!

As an adult I have been better, but I still feel that urge inside...