Spirituality of Storytelling-Part 4

"Do a Good Deed and Don’t Get Caught”

The following is a true story that the students enjoy every year. I had a friend named Elizabeth who was one of the happiest people I knew. Always with a smile on her face, she seemed to weather the storms in life with equanimity and she truly enjoy the simple pleasures. Once, I asked her how she seemed to stay so positive and she told me this story.

When she was a young adult, she was focused on her life and getting what she wanted, yet she found life unsatisfying. She was talking to a mentor in her life and her mentor gave her an assignment. The assignment was to do a good deed and not get found out. She was given specific instructions.

She was told to purchase a dozen roses and go to a nursing home, walk up to the front desk and tell the receptionist to give the dozen roses to someone who never gets any visitors. Then, she had to turn around and leave before the receptionist had a chance to thank her or say anything. Next, the hardest part is not to tell anyone she did it.

So, Elizabeth did it per instruction. She felt so good walking out of the nursing home that she picked up her phone and almost called her best friend to share the wonderful experience. But, she caught herself just in time and hung up. All through the day, she was thinking about what she did and she felt the urge to tell someone and let it out, but she knew she wanted to follow directions and see what happened.

For the next couple days, Elizabeth felt like she was bursting and really wanted to share this with friends and co-workers, but she kept it in. On the third day, as she was driving home, she said she felt a new feeling inside, it was almost like a ray of sunshine in her heart because she had done something good for someone else and didn't need to brag of get recognition as she usually did. Thus, there was something inside her that would grow as she found more ways, both big and small, to help her family, friends, co-workers and even strangers and not get caught.

A month later, when she recounted the story to her mentor, she was told that she could relay the story now to inspire others to do good deeds and not get caught. Oprah Winfrey and others have encouraged “Random Acts of Kindness” which is powerful. Also, the movie “Pay It Forward” dealt with this idea, but I like Elizabeth’s take and I encourage my students to do this and see how it makes them feel, to see if that sunshine gets planted in their hearts and starts to grow as they find the pure joy in helping others for the sake of helping, not getting the kudos for doing it. It may not be surprising that 4th graders seem to find this easier than some adults.
Quote to end story:

“When you do something noble and beautiful and nobody noticed, do not be sad. For the sun every morning is a beautiful spectacle and yet most of the audience still sleeps.”

- John Lennon

“The Starfish”

A young couple got married and had an ideal cottage on the shore on an isolated beach on the island of Kauai in Hawaii. Deeply in love, they were enjoying every moment together. One morning, the new wife woke up to find her husband was not in bed. She went and checked the kitchen, but he wasn't there either. Looking outside, she saw the sun cresting the mountainside and her husband on the beach, picking up starfish. This was such an odd sight that she ran outside to see what he was doing.

As she approached him, she saw starfish all over the beach, thousands and thousands of starfish everywhere. Her husband looked up and said, “Do you see this, a freak storm last night washed all these starfish on the shore and they will all die if we don’t get them back in the water.” 

She looked at him and said, “There are so many starfish, there is no way we can save them all, why don’t we just accept that they won’t survive and get on with the honeymoon? It won’t make a difference.” He looked at her, picked up a starfish, walked it back into the ocean and said, “It makes a difference to this one.” Looking around, she knew that even if they couldn't help them all, every one they could help would make a difference, so she picked up the closest starfish and smiled as she walked into the water. The long day they helped the starfish ended up being the best day of their honeymoon.

An afterward to this story, I find this story helpful as a teacher, because sometimes it feels like we can’t help all those stranded starfish we encounter in the classroom, but we can enjoy each one we bring back to shore.