photo credit: AriCee

“Wher­ever there is a human being, there is an oppor­tu­nity for a kind­ness.” ~ Seneca

I was read­ing a recent arti­cle about kind­ness, by Mark over at Mark Sali­nas, MN.  An arti­cle about the impor­tance of being kind to one another.  And this reminded me of a story that hap­pened to me a few years ago.

Lunch…Or Maybe Not

My wife and I.  Three small chil­dren.  Sat­ur­day morn­ing.  Doing yard work.  Play­ing games.

Lunch time.  Let’s go out .  No cash, but credit card in hand, we drive over to the local sub shop.

Sand­wiches ordered, we get to the cashier.  I hand her my credit card.  She runs it through the machine.  Noth­ing.  Try again.  Nothing.

The credit card machine is bro­ken.  It’s cash or noth­ing.  And all we have is our credit card.  No cash.

And then…

The woman in line behind us offers to pay for our sand­wiches.  She doesn’t know us.  She is not con­cerned about get­ting her $15 back.  She just gen­uinely is glad to help.  Kind­ness.  In unex­pected ways.

Kind­ness hap­pens every­day.  So what makes this story unique or spe­cial?  It’s spe­cial because it affected me in a way that was worth much more than the extra money some­body spent on my fam­ily.  It’s spe­cial because not every­one would have done that.  It’s spe­cial because I left the restau­rant that day feel­ing a renewed sense of hope in our world.  And the good that exists. It’s spe­cial because, even though kind­ness hap­pens every­day, it doesn’t always happen.

The won­der­ful thing about kind­ness is that when we give this gift to oth­ers, those oth­ers often pass this gift on to some­one else.  It’s a gift that keeps on giv­ing.  Our one small act can really lead to many small acts of kind­ness.  And many small acts of kind­ness, col­lec­tively, lead to world where we all treat each other as we would want to be treated.  A world filled with love.

What can you do today to shed a lit­tle kind­ness in your world?  It doesn’t have to be big.  It doesn’t just have to be with your money.  It can be with your time.  It can be with oth­ers skills you have to offer.  Look for oppor­tu­ni­ties to spread the kind­ness bug.  Let’s all make this world a kinder place, one small act at a time.