Swandeh Terhide

This uplifting moment showcases the extraordinary teamwork of villagers who united to retrieve a pickup truck that had tumbled down a steep hill. A man was traveling along the slope when he lost control and skidded off the dirt road in Chiang Mai province in northern Thailand. More than fifty locals volunteered to pull the old vehicle that rolled over the hills and was stuck on the edge of a cabbage field terrace. They helped the driver out of the truck before tying thick ropes around the truck to pull it. After almost an hour, the vehicle was successfully towed back to the road. Malinee Laowang, a niece of the driver, said: “I saw the pickup truck toppled down the hill and flipped multiple times.”  “I remember running towards the car and smashing the windows open with a rock to let my relative out. More villagers came to help us even without asking.” Malinee’s uncle narrowly survived the crash and only suffered minor cuts and bruises and the car was dragged back to the driver’s home. Malinee added: ‘My uncle was not seriously hurt and his car would be repaired. I would like to thank the villagers for helping us out.’ When we stick to the Ubuntu Philosophy and enshrine the spirit of togetherness and brotherhood into all we do, we would be healing the world from the infamy of pains and cruelty induced by human greed and selfishness.

Sometimes when friends try to hold you back from being too generous and kind, you know you’re doing something right. When icy temperatures this past winter froze Kodak, Tennessee, shutting power down and freezing pipes, Sean Patel, owner of the local Quality Inn, wanted to do something to help his neighbors: open his hotel to all comers, even if he ran out of rooms, and provide them food and warmth until the power came back on. “I frequently ask him to dial it back a bit because I know he’s spending so much of his own money and energy to help others, but he has such a big heart, I know he will only give more,” says his friend Steve Smith, who nominated the Quality Inn for Nicest Places in America. But Patel wouldn’t listen. The immigrant from India, who came to America in 2004, saw goodness in the people around him when he settled in Tennessee—and wanted to be a part of it. “I saw how much people helped each other in the South and it got to me,” explains Patel. “It’s not always about money. Sometimes you just need to talk. I always wanted to be that kind of person.” So, he did what came naturally: Patel took to social media to say, “If you can get here, we will take care of you.” Even at maximum capacity, Patel would make space for those who needed it whether that be in the lobby or around the pool area, just so they could have someplace warm to be. Between Christmas and New Years of 2020, all 60 rooms in the hotel were completely booked with some rooms housing as many as eight or nine adults. Some guests even stayed in the lobby or meeting rooms just to have a warm place to be. A couple rooms under maintenance were used so guests in the lobby could take a shower, which Patel’s team sanitized thoroughly after each user. People came together in ways that Patel has never seen before. Everyone pitched in. Some guests even paid for each other’s rooms. Everyone was sharing food. The hotel staff turned on their breakfast station so people wouldn’t have to worry. Later in the winter, when a similar freeze hit Texas, Patel did the same with another hotel he owns, the Segovia Lodge. Power lines came down and pipes froze over as the cold engulfed an unprepared Texas. Patel waived all fees so anyone who could get to the hotel could stay and eat for free all week. Guests even walked to the hotel because their cars couldn’t get through. The hotel eventually lost electricity and stranded truckers took turns staying up all night to keep a fire going. All of the rooms were full, yet Patel opened the lobby floor so more guests could be sheltered. With over 200 people at the hotel, there wasn’t any fuss. No one argued. Everyone made sure the others were comfortable, warm, and fed as they took turns cooking for each other.  “It wasn’t about who was Black, White, Democrat, Republican. COVID, or no COVID, everyone was a family,” says hotel manager Shelly Shirley. All the guests who were at the Segovia Lodge during the freeze have even kept in touch via a Facebook group! They check in on each other and keep up with news from each other’s lives. “Business is down, but I still have clothes on my back, the kids were safe, we had a shower and food,” says Patel. “We all have to look out for each other.” It’s of utmost importance to remember that our motivations shouldn’t solely revolve around financial gain. The kindness we extend to others will linger in their hearts long after our wealth and material possessions have faded away.

High school graduations are one of the most important rites of passage in a teenager’s life. Four years of hard work, friendships, and dreams for the future all culminate in a shining moment that will be remembered long after the caps and gowns are collecting dust. Now imagine Daverius Peters’ dismay when on May 19, as he headed into the ceremony to receive his diploma, he was stopped at the door by the fashion police. Although his black-topped, white-soled sneakers were anything but outrageous, Peters learned they were in violation of the school’s dress code and he was denied entry. It looked as if Peters was about to miss his chance to walk across the stage with his classmates—until someone stepped in with both feet—and shoes—to turn things around. When the distraught senior caught sight of a friendly face he went looking for help. John Butler, a para-educator at Boutte, Louisiana’s Hahnville High School was on hand for the graduation as a parent, not a staff member, but once he learned the details of Peters’ predicament, he accompanied the young man he’d come to know and respect back to the entry to see if he could change the gatekeeper’s mind. “I was hoping that maybe if she saw me with him, she would let it go, but she insisted on not letting this young man in, and I didn’t have time to go back and forth with her,” Butler told The Washington Post. “It was a no-brainer… This was the most important moment in his life up to that point, and I wasn’t going to let him miss it for anything.” Without missing a beat, Butler simply swapped his size-11 loafers for Peters’ size-9 athletic shoes. With seconds to spare, Peters made it inside the venue just as the doors closed and was able to keep his place in the graduation line. Although his family was initially confused by the last-minute wardrobe substitution, they were thrilled that Butler’s quick thinking kept a joyful celebration from turning into an ugly situation. “I wasn’t surprised because Mr. Butler is that type of person,” a grateful Peters told The Washington Post. “At school, if you’re having a bad day, he’ll be the one to take you out of class, walk around the school with you and talk to you.” It’s said that a truly generous man will give the shirt off his back to someone in need. Now it seems, the adage also applies to the shoes off his feet. Our minds may forget beautiful faces, but never the ones who lit our way through the darkness. This here is an invitation for us all to stay kind wherever we find ourselves. If we can’t help others, may we at least not add to their struggles and pains.

A Scottish farmer named Fleming toiling away on his farm, when suddenly, piercing screams shatter the tranquility. Without a second thought, he abandons his tools and races towards the distress. What he finds is a child struggling in the swamp, trapped and drowning. With no hesitation, Fleming risks his own life, using a long branch to pull the child to safety. The very next day, a luxurious car pulls up to Fleming’s modest home. Out steps a distinguished gentleman—Randolph Churchill, the father of the boy Fleming saved. Churchill offers to repay the farmer’s bravery with riches, but Fleming refuses, saying, “Saving someone is my duty; humanity has no price.” Just then, Fleming’s own son appears at the door. Churchill, intrigued, asks, “Is this your son?” When Fleming proudly confirms, Churchill proposes an intriguing deal: if Fleming won’t accept his money, he’ll fund the boy’s education at the finest schools, ensuring he gets the same opportunities as Churchill’s own child. Fleming, realizing the chance to give his son a future he could never afford, gratefully accepts. His son goes on to attend St Mary’s Medical School in London and becomes Sir Alexander Fleming, the inventor of penicillin. Years later, the story comes full circle when penicillin, discovered by Sir Alexander Fleming, saves the life of Winston Churchill, the son of Randolph Churchill, who had once offered to fund Fleming’s education in gratitude for saving his son. This remarkable twist illustrates the adage that what goes around comes around, reminding us of kindness and the interconnectedness of our actions. Let us be inspired to act kindly, always.

For over 9 years now, Linda Brown and her husband David organized a nightly drop-in shelter where homeless people in Springfield could eat, shower, do laundry, use a computer, and socialize during bingo games and karaoke—but they wanted to do more. So, they transformed an abandoned mobile home property into a village of tiny homes that provides permanent housing to the chronically disabled homeless. They raised $4.75 million and opened Eden Village in 2018, erecting 31 tiny homes that are now occupied by people like Jonathan Fisher. Jonathan Fisher who was battling substance abuse, and had lived on the streets for two years when he met Linda Brown, who changed his life. “In the worst moments of my life, Linda gave me guidance, care, and made me feel like I was still worth something,” Fisher says. He says that Brown took the time to learn about how he became homeless, and then encouraged him as he rebuilt his life. She even offered him a job. Now sober, Fisher works full-time for Brown, doing construction and maintenance on the 31 homes, and helping others experiencing struggles similar to what he went through. The driving philosophy behind Eden Village is the same that fuels the Housing First movement: The root causes of a person’s homelessness cannot be thoroughly addressed until his or her immediate housing needs are met. “I watched as my homeless friends walked off into the darkness to a hidden, wet, cold camp while we went home to a warm bed,” Linda told the National Association of Realtors, who honored her with their Good Neighbor Award in 2020. “I had to do something,” That was the moment that formed her vision for the tiny-home village that serves as a place where the chronically disabled homeless “can live with dignity and self-worth.” After drawing sponsorship money from Coldwell Banker, the Greater Springfield Board of Realtors, local banks, churches, and area residents, by February 2019, all 31 tiny homes, which cost about $42,000 each, were occupied. “It takes someone who wants to do something, and then believes they can. I’ve watched Linda Brown live that out,” says Nate Schleuter, who helped launch a tiny-home village for the homeless in Austin, Texas, but now is the chief visionary officer for Eden Village. “It’s exciting to watch the homeless who thought they’d live the rest of their life on the street now have a home.” Brown’s 13 years of real estate expertise has been essential to the development of the tiny-home community, where she learned of a listing for an abandoned 4.2-acre mobile park on Springfield’s east side, which was suitable for tiny-home trailers as it didn’t require rezoning and had the necessary infrastructure and utilities already in place. The 400-square-foot individual homes are fully furnished, including dishes and bedding, and are rolled in on wheels attached to their steel frames, qualifying them as recreational vehicles. Residents can remain in their home as long as they wish, provided they remain a good neighbor in the community. The village includes a 4,000-square-foot community center where residents can hold cookouts, do laundry, and access a medical office staffed with student nurse volunteers and mental health professionals. Eden Village also features the site of a marriage ceremony for two residents. Fisher says Brown’s devotion helped him emerge from the grip of homelessness. “She helped me to build a better life,” Fisher says. “Even when I was struggling with homelessness and sobriety, she showed me I was valuable and that my potential shouldn’t be wasted. She made me feel like I belonged somewhere.”

When armed conflict is a way of life, a lasting resolution may seem beyond reach. And yet, while small acts of personal courage may not ultimately shape the larger outcome, there are some people on both sides who continue reaching for peace regardless. Israeli kindergarten teacher and mother-of-three Idit Harel Segal wanted to do something meaningful for her 50th birthday. Rather than receiving a present, she chose to give one. In memory of her late grandfather, Segal decided to donate a kidney. The life-saving gift Segal offered not only aligns with her Jewish faith—but was her way of extending an olive branch as well, because the kidney recipient was a 3-year-old Palestinian boy from the Gaza Strip. Although there are strict restrictions in place limiting the number of entry permits, the Jerusalem-based, nongovernmental organization Matnat Chaim was able to arrange for the surgical procedure on humanitarian grounds. (To move the little boy to the head of the donor list in Gaza, his father also agreed to donate a kidney to an Israeli patient, a 25-year-old mother of two.) With all the pieces in place, the surgery was scheduled for June 16, 2021, but before it took place, Segal wanted to make sure the little boy would know just how much giving this particular gift meant to her when he grew older, so she sent him a letter. “You don’t know me… You don’t understand my language and I don’t understand yours, but soon we’ll be very close because my kidney will be in your body,” she wrote. “I hope with all my heart that this surgery will succeed and you will live a long and healthy and meaningful life.” In the hospital, Segal met with the little boy and his mother. She sat next to them on his hospital bed, and as the mother comforted her son, Segal sang to him until he nodded off. “He fell asleep, then I left. I cried,” she recalled in an interview. “It was really moving. Deep inside I knew I did something good.” Segal admits her course of action wasn’t received without conflict within her own family. Her husband, eldest son, and father initially opposed the plan. But Segal—considering the gesture as the way to best honor the values of the beloved grandfather she’d lost five years earlier—held firm to a decision she says came on the heels of an 11-day outbreak of renewed hostilities. “I threw away the anger and frustration and see only one thing. I see hope for peace and love,” she said. “And if there will be more like us, there won’t be anything to fight over.” Eventually, her family came to appreciate and embrace the choice she’d made. Segal believes that compared to the grander scheme of things, what she’s done is only “a small thing”—but even so, any step closer to kindness and peace taken in good faith is a step in the right direction.

RNLI volunteers in the UK were in the middle of a crew member’s wedding when their pagers went off, summoning them to rescue six people stranded on a beach near Ilfracombe, Devon. The lifesavers, who were lined up the aisle creating an arch for newlyweds Ashley Witcombe and his wife Cheryl, raced to the lifeboat station and launched the inshore lifeboat within just seven minutes. Wedding photographer Becky Payne, 39, captured the dramatic moment, saying, “They’d literally just got married. We went outside and just after we took a couple of pictures they had to run. It was pretty exciting.” Despite the challenging conditions, the RNLI crew successfully rescued the three adults and three children who had become stranded during a paddleboarding trip. Later that afternoon, the lifeboat crew drove past the seaside wedding venue again while on a training exercise and waved to the newlywed couple. RNLI lifeboatman Leigh Hanks acknowledged the disruption to Ashley and Cheryl’s special day, saying, “We hope the pagers didn’t disrupt Ashley and Cheryl’s special day too much, although I’m sure it’s something they’re both used to. It’s not the first time the pagers have gone off at a crew wedding, and I’m sure it won’t be the last.” There is so much to take home from here, particularly the respect for human life. It requires immense selflessness and compassion for individuals celebrating a special occasion to consider the needs of others. Their swift actions and professionalism not only gave rise to a successful rescue but also ensured a positive outcome for everyone involved.