Expat's hope is renewed by gift of corn tortillas. See the kindnesses.

There was the couple who picked up a woman's ball of yarn when it rolled under the seats on an airplane. The heart-shaped Christmas tree ornament given to parents in honor of their stillborn son. That friend who shipped her pal corn tortillas while she was homesick and living abroad.

And for Rachel Hunt, there was her sister's 10-year-old child, who offered kindness when her brother died of a heroin overdose in 2018. A cup of tea with lemon and honey, leaves poured into the water, straight from the packet. On accident, but with purpose.

Out of Hunt's grief came Tiny Kindness, a social media project in which users chronicle little moments led by big love. Not random or easily forgotten.

"They're not like a fake version of, like, joy or a fake version of positivity, but it's acknowledging, like, 'Yeah, that hard thing was actually hard," Hunt said. "Like, that divorce was hard, that death was hard, losing my brother was hard."

The Instagram account @tinykindnesses has built a 50,000-strong following, spreading hope during a weighty and hectic news cycle, capturing small acts of joy that were born from other people's kindness.

"We need to know what's happening that's bad in the world," Hunt said. "But it can also feel like that's all that there is." Hunt traces where the kindnesses occur "because they literally happen all of the time everywhere."

'More than the big hard things'

Raised in Oregon, Hunt shared a bond with the oldest of her six siblings, Hyrum Hunt.

After the housing crisis in 2008, she was fresh off a breakup, heartbroken in Boston, after earning her master's degree. Her brother invited her to move to Los Angeles to live with him and his family. He gave her a car to drive – a big kindness. But what Hunt remembers best are the small gestures – his tiny kindnesses.

He would leave the light on for her. He would say, "Take care, be safe." And, "Drive safe − text me when you get there."

"I feel like he showed up for me in big ways, but also small ways. And so it did teach me a lot of what care feels like and what it looks like," Hunt told USA TODAY.

By 2017, Hunt had become a successful author, known for her works analyzing The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the faith's intersection with motherhood and feminism.

She received an award for poetry that year from the Association for Mormon Letters for her collection "Mother's Milk."

The following year, in October 2018, her brother died. Nine days before he died, Hunt moved to China. A year after his death, Hunt started Tiny Kindness.

She was inspired after sipping from that cup of tea made with the love of her sister's family. "This was so touching, and it didn't cost a lot of money," Hunt said. "It didn't take a lot of time, but they saw me in this moment when I needed extra love." Since then, Hunt has shared more than 5,000 stories of tiny kindnesses from followers in over 88 countries.

For Hunt, 2024 was also a hard year.

She filed for divorce in June. Her father got sick in July. He entered hospice care in August and died in October. Her daughter spent 31 days in the Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis during the holidays. Then a friend in Utah stepped up to fill four Christmas stockings for her kids. Another Utah friend went to the store and bought Hunt's children last-minute gifts.

"These very tiny moments are more than the big hard things that are also real, so I feel like it's like holding them both," Hunt said.

'Beauty can come from grief'

Last year was also hard. Her divorce was finalized on her birthday, Feb. 13. Hunt broke up with a new boyfriend.

Hunt, who lives now in Columbus, Indiana, turned the page.

She submitted a draft for her book on Oct. 2, the anniversary of her dad's death. Whittled down from 5,000 to 200 stories, the final draft of her forthcoming project will be bound together with Hunt's favorite submissions from Tiny Kindness. "Beauty can come from grief, like it coexists, like it's always part of the story," Hunt said.

Her selection of stories will be published by an imprint of Hachette, one of the "big five" publishers. (The others are HarperCollins, Penguin Random House, Macmillan and Simon & Schuster.)

The headlines are humming. Life – and the world – can be hard.

The submissions keep coming. From passengers on that Phoenix flight headed to San Antonio, Texas. The Australian parents who received the Christmas ornament after the stillbirth of their son. That long-distance friend in Albania who received a delivery of corn tortillas.

When her sister's kid gave her that tea full of tea leaves, Hunt wrote of her own miniature moment, "I didn't even mind, because it was so kind of them for trying."

She is giving something out, too.

Kindness.