September 11, 2006

Random Acts of Kindness

Random acts of kindness. Random compliments. They’re the best, because they’re completely unexpected and they catch you utterly off guard.

One of those happened this morning, when I was in line at the Safeway in Corvallis buying some groceries for Andrew. It was one of those uber long Safeway lines where everybody’s completely silent, secretly waiting for someone to start a conversation so they can eavesdrop, thus occupying their idle minds as they wait for the slowpoke in front of them to pay for their ginormous cart full of groceries.

Suddenly, the kind-looking, wrinkly-faced old man in front of me turned around and said, “Has anyone told you today how pretty you are?” Naturally, I didn’t know what to say. My face turned some deep shade of red as I looked around desperately for some distraction to take the attention off of me. Everybody’s ears perked and they smiled at the kind gesture, almost as if the little old man had complimented them as well. After a moment of silence, he spoke up again. “Well, then, let me be the first to tell you today that you are very pretty.”And that was it.

The dozen-or-so people who had been within earshot of the man’s comment found themselves with pleasant smiles on their faces, all because this one little man randomly complimented the person standing behind him in line. He made the world around him a little better. It didn’t cost him anything, he didn’t have to go out of his way more than the step-and-a-half it took to turn around and speak to me.

So I drove back to Eugene and when I checked my email at work, there was one message that stood out from all the rest. It was a simple two-liner from my grandparents, who live in Texas. It read quite simply, "Melly... We love you. You are wonderful. You are so neat, so fine, so fun that you drive us crazy. Your devoted fans, Sab and Soft." So little, yet so much.

That’s what it’s all about, isn’t it? You do what you have to do every day – you take out the trash, you go to work, you make the bed, you wash the dishes, but it’s all for nothing if you’re not making something better. If you’re not taking the little seemingly insignificant spot in the world you’ve been given, and making it more bearable. Even if it’s only the smallest thing, somebody will notice and your presence will have made a difference in somebody’s day.

People do nice things for each of us every day; our only duty is to pass it on. That’s what it’s all about. Pass it on.

1 Comments:

At September 11, 2006 4:02 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Have I told you, today, how pretty you are?

 

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