To want to know what good you do?

Day to day I'm a total waste of space and the world wouldn't miss me if I wasn't here.
However every 4 months I give blood so I guess that's 'good'.

The Samaritan training is amazing! 9 months including mock-ups of real calls, feedback on said calls, compassionate teaching, some scenarios you'd never imagine, robust boundaries around your own self-care, insight you'd never thought you'd need or apply, support and lastly, huge camaraderie among your cohort and fellow samaritans.
I did it for 5 years and it was an unforgettable experience. This to @Sconcing too.

Sorry if it was abruptly done, and made you feel unwanted at all. But you don't need the thanks or acknowledgement of the organizers, and lots of donors don't like anything being made of what they do, or if they can't or don't want, to do it anymore, which is quite probably why they don't.

But trust me, over 30 years, an awful lot of recipients and their family's have been heartfelt thanking you and will still be thanking you again and again, every birthday and anniversary especially, without ever knowing your name. It's out there in the ether.

I care for my disabled father and my job supports disabled people. I feed birds in the garden and in the woods. I listen to people including strangers when they tell me stories. I love talking and listening to my children. I've persevered with an angry biting dog, it's taken 6 years for him to become happier/mellowed (yes his bites break the skin and he's been to the vets fot tests and scans and 2 trainers). Only had one bite this year! That was because we had suitcases out for holiday and he knew that meant the kennels! I always donate clothes and shoes to charity.

Many humans are still being quietly decent.
I reckon what I manage to not do despite huge constant provocation, has to count somewhere. 😊
I do all sorts of things here and there to try and make the world around me a better place but bad at talking about most of them, but AlmostAJillSandwich's post has prompted me to say I'm often out at nights (supposed to only be weekends but growing needs means often in the week too now) with pop up street kitchens, supplying food, company and what help can be given to folks who're not so lucky and have ended up living or surviving on the streets.

Every single bit of food and physical resources we use, come from acts of decency from many others.

There are also people out there in desperate straits with so very little, who would be reasonable to focus only on themselves, instead sharing what they do have, or making extra journey's on nothing, to find someone to care that someone else has given up, stopped eating entirely, and needs intervention to survive.
Inherent decency runs deep and can be catching from any direction.

Also help to organize the storage and access of homeless peoples remaining possessions they're trying to hold onto, from change of clothing to treasures like photo albums, to urns. I'm currently breaking my own rules and actually have an urn in my home. It was on a property storage shelf with battered suitcases and bags, which was causing it's older owner nightmares and distress.
They're doing way better with "their 'Lesley' " being "in a proper place, warm and dusted" not in a tent, or "a cold shelf" somewhere, and if anything happens in the meantime, whatever else, a hand on heart promise they'll be reunited.
It's taken one pressure of.

I came in at 5.20am and recently finished 'being there' on the phone as best I can for someone who has managed to survive all the stages from giving up and being entirely lost to drugs alcohol and psychosis cycle, and having to be spoon fed in a tent to try and keep them alive when they'd gone beyond rock bottom and nhs and police refused help, because they weren't asking any more... to making it all the way up to no longer using, and getting a trial housing tenancy.

They're struggling with what should be their hard won victory and 'happy ending' because they've been through a lot and their mental (and parts of physical) health has taken a battering and is painfully fragile. I can't do that much, but not being alone with it all matters, and step by step...

I act in loco parentis for four adult kids who have high support needs and no parents who are around to support them into adulthood. I have known all of them since childhood and have quite unusual connections with them all.

Im the ‘go to’ person for support, in our friendship group. I go ‘the extra mile’ for staff and students at work, in my job in mental health.

I support lots of charities for humans and animals.

I’ve done a lot of volunteering and ‘at cost’ work in the past.

Did it for 30 years then abruptly told my blood was no longer wanted because the drugs I’d taken during my IVF treatment made me a mad cow risk. Received no thanks or acknowledgement of the 30 years I’d already been donating.

I'm financially supporting someone i love who would otherwise drown in debt and become homeless to keep a roof over their head and hot food in their stomach.

I'm on the anthony nolan bone marrow donor list (though my age gender and race mean i'll likely never be needed) and i intend to donate absolutely everything possible when i pass to give the gift of life to as many people as possible, as well as none life saving but massive quality of life improving donations like corneas that many donors ask to be excluded.

I'm live in carer to elderly parent although I'm having a respite break atm. Stay away from social media and the news, it really helps. I have a quick scan of headlines on a news site every now and then, but honestly, not knowing what's going on, makes no difference to day to day life.

The more you doom scroll, the more the algorithms will feed you. Step away from it. My feed is now full of happy donkeys and baby goats! It's a better place to be.

I provide food and water for the animals that come to my garden, from bees, butterflies to birds and hedgehogs. It’s a kind of sanctuary for them.

I donated a kidney to a stranger so that a friend would receive a living donor kidney from another stranger.

I volunteer for a crisis support phone line.
I work in schools and support young people with SEN.
I buy coffee vouchers for colleagues who are having a tough time and leave them on their desks as a little surprise.
I support a charity which provides period products to women and girls in shelters.

• We foster cats
• I volunteer at a food pantry several times a month
• I volunteer at the Salvation Army signing people up for Christmas assistance and distributing gifts.
• We make "blessings bags" to hand out to homeless people (we've given them out in four states and two countries)

I try to help people out where I can, especially kids and elderly people. I've paid for people's shopping before and helped people carry things etc. I litter pick and always check parks for broken glass and pick it up so no kids or animals cut their feet. I help animals and insects if they're in a pickle and have returned cats to their owners and left bowls of water out for various animals if it's hot. I sometimes water my elderly allotment neighbour's plot because he has health issues and sometimes struggles.

The usual stuff really. I try to be nice to people and listen when people talk to me. I'm a magnet for randomers coming up to chat and if I'm not in a hurry I'll chat to especially elderly people as they might not get to have a chinwag with people that often. And I help out other school mums by taking their kids in if they need to dash off to work, and when a new parent joins the school gates I say hello and add them to the class WhatsApp group and introduce them to the other mums so they're not alone.

Try not to be a prick basically. It's a bit funny because I don't even like people that much but a little good never hurt anyone.

Oh - an easy one that we like to do is pay for the order of the car behind in the McDonald’s drive through sometimes.

There’s the usual stuff / standing orders to charity, donating to charity shops etc but I think almost everyone does that?

I work in an paeds. I’m not going to count my job because although it does help people I am paid to do it, but on days when I get a lunchbreak I try and do story time on the ward once a week. The entire oeuvre of Julia Donaldson has been committed to memory by now!

There is a mystery biscuit fairy who always makes sure that there are chocolate biscuits in the nurses’ staff room. It’s me. (In fairness, the matron does know it’s me because I’m not a staff nurse so I had to persuade him to give me the door code!)

If a stranger has nice glasses, or a fabulous hairdo or a lovely jumper on I always make sure I tell them.

I do not stand by. If someone is being rude to staff in a cafe or a shop, or harassing someone at the bus stop or whatever, I will call it out.

Thanks for a really lovely thread. I'm going to be really mindful about how I go about my day tomorrow and try to incorporate some of these ideas into it 😊

Lovely idea, OP! I (and DH, to be fair)…

• Make an annual donation to a local women’s refuge charity and have done for several years
• Pay forwards the clothes SIL passes on from DNephew; those clothes plus any additions go on to 3 more families - makes me feel like we’re doing something to reduce the environmental impact of clothes production
• Wrap and distribute Christmas gifts to local elderly people who otherwise wouldn’t get presents via a local charity network (DH’s least favourite as he’s a hopeless wrapper and can’t deal with awkward bottles of bubble bath etc 🤣)
• Make ad hoc donations to charity and the local food bank - this year I’m going to attempt a reverse advent calendar with DS, putting something in every day and donating after Christmas when donations have slowed a bit
• Volunteer for a charity and as a disability-related peer supporter at work
• Currently helping out my parents’ local church with something I happen to have specialist knowledge of (my Dad volunteered me 🤣)

Plus I’ve ordered some fun craft kits as a surprise for when my friends come over for dinner soon; they’ve all had a lot on recently and this will hopefully be something a bit different to do whilst we drink wine / tea and catch up, plus they’re festive so something to add to their Christmas decor! 🎅🏻 (either that or they’ll turn out to be fiendishly difficult and we’ll have a laugh whilst they curse me for my daft ideas!).

Thanks OP, this thread is made me feel really cheery!

And sometimes you get a lovely thank you!

My neighbour's son failed his mocks. Years ago I used to be a tutor so I offered to tutor him for free. He passed with good grades. I was happy, he was happy, so were his parents.

An acquaintance I don't know well and hadn't seen in years suddenly asked for my address and hand-delivered some home made raspberry jam as a surprise. I gave her some cooking apples and we ended up going for a long walk together and catching up.

I pay for people behind me at the Starbucks drive through
all my cats have been from rescue
i successfully resuscitated (with a defib) a man that collapsed in front of me in the shopping centre
I leave sweets at the till for ambulance/police if they’re at the petrol station

this year I paid for a cat to be PTS as the owner couldn’t afford it and I feel nobody should pay to feel like they are killing their pet or having to keep them alive in pain, someone did it for me so I passed it on

also smashed out the remnants of a window of a crashed upturned car so I could climb in and stay with the elderly man who was badly hurt

I pick up litter in my local park whilt walking my dog. My house is a tip but I feel that I'm doing some small good

I’m a Samaritans listening volunteer like others on the thread. It can be heartbreaking, but it’s also a genuine joy to be part of a group of people who want to help others. An antidote to the news and a regular reminder that there is so much good in so many people. And often by the end of a call, you can tell people are feeling just that bit better than when we started speaking, or if they aren’t, at least for that bit of time they have had someone to sit alongside them in their pain; that means a great deal to me. Other than that, I try to be the best mum, daughter, friend and partner I can be, and have dedicated myself to serving my three cats, who have appalling high standards!

Don’t feel bad about taking a break from the news and the doomscrolling from time to time. It’s important to be informed and engaged, but it’s also overwhelming - the scope and the intrusiveness of the media and social media these days is just too much. Sites like Positive News, or The Good News Network, can help to balance the feeling that everything is awful and we are doomed as a species.