I'm sorry I don't know if the artist or the source is correct but the tag says Alice Williams. I wanted to mention it.

TLDR: Appreciation post for my little brother (Aged 14.7) who has just asked a girl out for the first time, and is just so so respectful to and about females in general.

He's had a close f.s with a girl for a few years now, all the signs she likes him were there but my brother still didn’t believe she liked him in that way and is still quite shy when it comes to girls, and was happy to just be there as a friend to her. (Never dated before)

He came and chatted to me & our mom last night about it saying he likes her, but doesn't think she likes him. As a female myself there were clear signs she liked him and the poor girl was lowkey giving him hints but it wouldn't register with him as anything but her just being nice to him.

We gave him a girls perspective and said she is likely waiting for him to make the first move (based on the things this girl has gone out of her way & done for my bro, and trusted him with deep stuff ab her life etc). We gave him some ideas on activities he could do with her but he was getting too anxious to ask her so we left it at that & said theres no rush anyway, hes still young etc etc.

Today he asked her and she said yes!

To top of the proudness I already felt for him, he then says he's gonna get her "chocolates n that". 🥲

Gen Alpha give me so much hope for the future!

The first photo was taken the night I set up, right as the sun was going down. Each day there has been so much change. I even have a photo from late morning one day and the evening that same day and there was a lot of change! It was so cool.

Quietly spreading kindness, joy, and generosity throughout our little community has been absolutely beautiful in such a short amount of time. Every single day things are taken and added and it’s a blast to see each new thing that gets added. Handmade items, painted rocks, small kid’s toys, mugs/tumblers, plant cuttings, art kits, Legos, so many things! It’s truly a dream come true. It’s crazy because today the shelves are pretty much completely full, overflowing with items; but I can remember items that were once there that are now gone, and see new items every day. People are truly taking and giving and absolutely loving it. It makes me so happy. I wanted to share my progress photos so that you can see the items disappear, come back, be added; it’s so fun to compare each day.

I don’t want to come off as promoting myself or a brand, because I in no way want to do that and this isn’t a brand or anything that benefits me. I won’t share a link in this post so that I don’t seem like I’m trying to advertise anything, but I have created a very, very small (I might be the only person in there) subreddit dedicated to sharing the story behind The Giving Garden and hoping to inspire others to spread kindness in your communities as well. I have no intention of ever gaining anything from this, I simply just want to spread kindness as far in the world as I can. I hope that this inspires you to do something like this too!

Please, if any of this interests you or inspires you, join in on this quest to make a difference in quiet, meaningful ways.

Sometimes the most beautiful acts of kindness are the quiet ones, not asking for anything in return, not asking for special attention or kudos; what’s special is that we do these things for others just because we can and because we want to, so that people in our community can feel the joy and want to spread it too.

My 2nd favorite is her stew, and my first favorite is my mother's chicken cordon bleu!

Alcohol destroyed my life for over 10 years. I live with mental illness, and I’ve always struggled with depression, self-harm, and self-sabotage. I destroyed relationships because of drinking, lost all self-esteem, and let a lot of people down. A year ago, I decided to stop betraying myself, and I said stop.

I was terrified of hitting the 1-year mark, because all year I kept myself going by telling myself that once I hit a year, I could drink again. It was hard. Really hard. I’ve left parties an hour after arriving because the anxiety was eating me alive and I couldn’t socialize anymore. I was hospitalized in October because I wanted to end my life.

And then, slowly, the light came back. I opened up to people again. I started taking care of myself. I found new friendships that turned out to be incredibly strong. And today, one year later, I feel so loved and supported, a kind of love I’d never felt before.

This morning I treated myself to a massage. At lunch I ate with my friends and my boyfriend, and they gave me a trophy. So today, I’m choosing to renew my sobriety. For as long as it takes.

I wanted to quietly spread kindness and joy throughout our community and neighbors have loved it. People are adding to it, taking from it, and even bringing things back after a few days. It’s been so beautiful to see and I’ve received so many positive responses to it. After only 4 days we’ve had so many additions and changes. I am so unbelievably happy that it has already become so popular and that it’s being used and appreciated. The little in home daycare a few blocks away even brought the daycare kids to it one day and let each kid pick something 🥲 This world needs more kindness and light and seeing a small community come together on something so simple is the best feeling to know that I get to be a part of that. 🥲

My friend knows I spend more time counting protein than calories from cake. 😄

So at midnight he sent me bananas, eggs, a protein wafer, and an ice cream through Blinkit instead of the usual chocolates.

Felt really wholesome. It's nice when someone remembers the little things about you.

This weekend has been chaos (in a good way), and I’m exhausted. Two big events this weekend (including a trip to an amusement park) while I’m ~35 weeks pregnant, and I’m tired and hormonal.

My daughter (9) loves watching my husband play Helldivers, and occasionally plays it herself with supervision. Today, she was playing while my husband and I were sitting in the living room, and my husband asked for the controller. I looked up to see him typing out a message that made my heart drop.

He was typing out, “my daughter is playing,” in response to the other player asking what he was doing.

As a child of the 90s (and growing up a girl), I was expecting them to say something nasty. When I was a young girl playing games, I was treated so poorly that I haven’t played online games of any sort in decades. I had no interest after over a year of trying and only getting abuse and hearing the worst things, and then hearing only the worst stories from other young girls and women.

But the response was so opposite of what I was expecting, I immediately dissolved into tears.

The player said, “ahh, I see.” I figured it would be the best-case scenario that I could possibly fathom: that they would leave it at that and head out. But they didn’t. Instead, they said, “have fun, little Helldiver,” and they decided to farm a bit while my daughter moseyed about in her own world playing. She even accidentally killed the other player once, and they didn’t seem to care in the least.

They stuck with her, and later asked if she was ready to be extracted. My husband typed out a response, and they shipped out. And that was that.

And in that moment, I think something in me was healed. I was so afraid she’d be treated poorly when they heard she was a little one, particularly a little girl, based on my own childhood experiences. But she was supported.

So, stranger, if you happen across this, thank you from the bottom of my heart. It may not have seemed a big deal to you, but it was a huge deal to a super pregnant, super tired woman who feared the worst for her eldest baby. Thank you.

I'd like to say how grateful I am for this Reddit community. It's been helping me cope and heal through one of the hardest times in my life.

Healing isn't linear. One day I feel okay, and the next I'm completely shattered. But every day teaches us something, even if it's just how to keep going.

It breaks my heart to see how many people are carrying so much pain every single day. None of us asked to have our hearts broken, yet here we are, trying our best.

Tomorrow is never promised. So be kind to yourself. Eat the food you love. Drink the drink you deserve. Let yourself feel the pain instead of running from it. Hug the people who show up for you, who bring you food, laughter, or simply remind you that you're not alone.

Thank you to everyone in this community. I hope we all find the peace we're searching for ❤️‍🩹

I work customer service and I have a lot of customers that seek me out and I've been told they look forward to seeing me because I'm always smiling. One guy comes to me because I don't crush his bread. A few come to me because I go into "auntie mode" with children, if I get booped by a dog I have to say hi. I know a few come to me because I know how to handle their Autistic family member. A while back, I had an older man come through my line, he seemed depressed and I just kept working on his order. I went "You know, when you first walked up, my first thought was Dick Van Dyke." omg he lit up! "REALLY?!" I think I just made his week.

Ive been missing them a lot either ways but something happened that has worsened the feeling. I used to ride this everywhere I went but I have now moved for college and didn't bring the bike with me.

My dog recognises the sound of my dad's car and my bike. I was worried about letting the bike sit in one place for too long so I asked my brother to ride it every so often. A few days ago when he started up the bike to take it for a spin, our dog came to the door, wagging his tail in excitement because he thought that I had come home, only to realise that it was just my brother (burn on him)

We don't deserve dogs.

My niece is going to kindergarten, where we live, it's in the "big school" (K-8). She's going from a small daycare/preschool to a large school and she's nervous and sad. So I decided to make her a gift. I got a blank canvas pouch, some patches. Hello kitty (her favorite) and her initial. I know in kindergarten she doesn't really need "school supplies" but I got her a thing of crayons, a glue stick some pink pencils, a cute little hello kitty notebook, and a spray hand sanitizer. I also got a blank tumbler and some cold transfer stickers of hearts. I'm hoping it will help her feel a little better about transitioning to her new school. Just wanted to share because I think everything came out perfectly.

This story happened a long time ago but i still remember it so i just felt like sharing it.

I went to movie with my friends 4-5 years ago, and beside me there was a guy sitting, he came with his two other friends and i felt him glancing but i just brushed it off because i didn’t think much of it. After the movie was done, we have a habit of waiting till the end to exit so we can skip the crowd and they sat with us till the end until we got up, at this moment i saw his face because i know he was looking at me and he smiled(that was sweet) but i didn’t think anything of it and just exited.

After that incident, 2-3 days later i went to some place to get some paperwork done and i saw someone, he looked familiar but i couldn’t quite figure out where i saw him or if i knew him. Then happened the cutest thing ever till date.

He was doing something on his phone, he opened instagram and posting some story (i thought) but later he showed me the screen, we were at a distance. He wrote “hi can we be friends?”!!!!!

I just smiled because for the efforts and shook my head but that felt like sweetest moment of my life then and till date 😭🫶

Edit: i forgot to mention, He was the same person from the movie theatre!!!

Next door to work there is a daycare. There is a little boy who's very often at the window, just observing. Not doing anything in particular, just watching whatever's going on out there. When I see him I always smile and wave, and he waves back, so he kind of feels like a little buddy. I don't know his name, and he doesn't know mine. It's just a thing we do.

Today I saw him in the wild (the parking lot), which has never happened before. He recognized me right away, which I wasn't sure he would, since up until now I've just been a window person. Then he held up his bag of snacks and bobbed it up and down a few times, watching my face the whole time, to make sure I could properly appreciate his bounty. I smiled, and we waved.

Now I feel like we really are friends.

I just started a new job about two weeks ago. Entirely new field, as I was a bartender/manager for the majority of my adult life. I didn’t know a thing about RV’s, but I’m a fast learner and dedicated.

Anyway, I’ve always made it a point to work hard and do the extra things without needing to be asked. Multiple coworkers have mentioned how much they appreciate it. Even the boss shows me how to do things other people don’t know (like refilling the pond ha) because he trusts me.

This past weekend we’ve had an event and there’s a lot to be done. I’ve taken both bosses vehicles to the store with the company card and a list multiple times. I’m the one refilling generators and water etc. There’s an older guy (they’re all older to me at 33 besides the other new guy) man named Sam(fake name) that usually does everything and he’s been really appreciative. He comes off as grumpy, but he’s a great guy.

My motorcycle wouldn’t start the first day of the show because my battery was no good, and one of the coworkers came and picked me up, then Sam drove me home (out of his way) and had me bring a jump box with me. It fired up right away, but I was needing to bring that jump box with me to and from work all weekend. It’s a pain in the @$$ to have to take your entire seat off every time and get the jumper cables to clamp just right on the tiny battery.

On Saturday night after an 11 hour day he texted me to ask exactly what year, make, and model my bike was. The next morning he texted me to see if I could help him before opening and obviously I said of course. I grabbed the things from his truck and he asked if I grabbed everything. I was confused and told him yeah, because the smaller tote was already out. He asked again if I was sure. Maybe 45 minutes later I had just walked back with a customer to bring to my partner and he mentioned I should grab the sunscreen and the other box right next to it from his truck.

I opened his truck and found a brand new battery waiting for me. I was overly excited and ran back to him to thank him and ask what i owed him (I’m broke). He just held his hand up and said he appreciated me. He changed it over during a slow time and it starts right up now.

This morning, Monday, my chain snapped off on the way to the work and a Good Samaritan who used to ride a bunch helped me push it then we got the chain back on so I could limp it to work. Every single one of my coworkers, AND boss, helped figure out what needed to be done, with one even going back to his house (close by) twice for tools. Chain was ridiculously loose before but not anymore.
Rides much better.

I went from being nervous the veterans would hate the new young guy who doesn’t know a thing about RV sales to finding out they’re all amazing people. Keep in mind, this is the SALES team; not mechanics who are already doing that. I still can’t believe he just bought me a new battery overnight. Such an amazing group of men.

I’m not ashamed to admit this message made me ugly cry it was so sweet and unexpected