This is a remarkable story I shared with Gan Jing World (Gan Jing is Chinese for “Pure World”) for their first essay contest. If you have a story to share, send it in there, or leave your own stories in the comments below.
So many of the things we see today are negative, warped and disgusting, I felt it was time to showcase someone doing a good deed and this essay contest was my excuse to get a post out. Good people like the woman in this story are everywhere, but it seems no one pays them any heed.
People ask me about relocation locations away from California or New York. Saving on taxes might seem good, but the moral character of the people around you is more valuable than money.
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Flower Still Life" by Jan Brueghel the Elder (1568 - 1625). Flemish.
A man who worked remotely for my online media company lost his wife after six years of suffering with cancer. I couldn’t attend the funeral as it was a long way away, in a small town in Arkansas, so I decided to send flowers instead.
I searched online and found only one flower shop near the small town where my employee lived and I called the number. A woman answered the phone and I told her I needed to have some flowers delivered for a funeral. She told me “it was good you called me today, because this is the last day I’m taking new orders for flowers. I’m shutting my business down next week.”
I was surprised and asked her “why are you shutting down?” Her answer stunned me.
“I’ve run this shop for years and I’m closing it because there is a young girl in town who would like to open a flower shop and there is not enough business in town for two flower shops. I’m closing my shop to give her a chance to get her business started.”
She also told me “people around here would literally give the shirt off their back if someone needed it.”
I was very surprised to run into a person of such high moral character, who considered others before themselves and personally forsook a profit to help a young person get started in life.
There are still many very good people like this, but they never show themselves off so you don’t see them often. You find them mostly in rural, out of the way places.
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Always consider the people you want to surround yourself with, should you need or wish to relocate.