I skipped Karen’s day 4 yesterday to write about something else (that I am thankful for).
I love the unexpected kindness. There is something great about doing something for someone without them asking–even more so when it is a stranger. We have all heard stories of those how pay at a drive-thru for the person behind them or for someone’s groceries. These are great moments and they make everyone feel good.
There is also the giving of your coat to the homeless man at the freeway off ramp on a below zero day asking for a dollar. Or the giving of an extra meal to someone on the street who clearly needs it. More often than not, we turn our eyes to those in need more often than not and when we do an unexpected kindness it is often towards someone who doesn’t need it.
Not that paying for someone’s $5 coffee at Starbucks isn’t nice, but I now think of what that $ might mean to the person at the free off ramp who is down on their luck. Giving them $5 might be a bit more “unexpected.”
When I was in NY for a conference the summer of 2011, a girl on the train clearly was out of sorts–scrapes on her legs, dirt on her dress, etc and she didn’t have $ for a ticket. I bought her ticket. It was the right thing to do.
I was riding our local rail system to the airport one morning and overheard a woman in tears talking about how she couldn’t get her car out of impound because her title was 4 hours away and she didn’t have any money for train ticket home. The bank wouldn’t let her overdraft her account, etc. She only need $40. I sat there for a bit and then thought to myself Will I really miss $40? I gave her $40. I could see in her eyes a connection to me a human being and that is what an unexpected kindness can do–regardless of the circumstances.
If we need to remember anything, it is that we are all connected. So, do something nice for someone when they least expect it.
Embracing Imperfection 
One evening when my son was about 2 years old, my husband and I took him to get some chinese take-out. We sat at one of the small tables as we decided what we wanted, and waited for our turn to order. There was a nice man ahead of us who smiled at my son and waved. My son got such a big kick out of that, and kept waving to him. The man waved back with a smile as he walked out of the restaurant with his food. Now our turn to order, we stepped up to the counter, where we were told the man had paid $40 toward our dinner. My husband and I were both speachless. Money had been tight, and we rarely went out to eat. The fact that he paid for our meal, and slipped out without a word, was simply wonderful. Since we couldn’t actually thank that man, we planned to pay it forward eventually. The opportunity didn’t take long to appear. A week later hubby and I went on date night to the local chinese buffet, where the man in front of us didn’t have enough money to pay for his already filled to-go plate (chinese buffet style take-out is priced by weight). As he waited for the manager to come speak to him- we slipped a $20 to the cashier without the man seeing. Let me tell you, if felt just as awesome to give as it did to receive!
LikeLike