acts of kindness

I was sitting down this morning to post in my blog but before I did I had to take a look at Facebook to see what I may have missed in the 10 hours since I last looked. I was intending to write about a couple very small acts of kindness that I have performed recently. Very, very small acts but still they made me feel very, very good to have performed them.

One of the first things I saw on Facebook was this post...

"3 things in human life are important. The 1st is to be kind. The 2nd is to be kind. And the 3rd is to be kind". (Henry James)

Every year I make a New Year's resolution to be kinder to people. It's not that I'm unkind. Just feel that I could be kinder.

Both my little acts of kindness involved older people. Both were somewhat humorous and both were somewhat sad.

My first little act happened several weeks ago. I was out for a long, long walk with a planned stop at the grocery store near the end of the walk to pick up an item or two. I visited the bathroom and when I came out of the stall there was a little old lady standing in front of the sinks but facing the door. I maneuvered around her, washed and dried my hands as she continued to stand there unmoving facing the door. I started to walk around her to leave but then asked her if she needed some help. She pointed to the magnetic sign on the door that said "Maintenance. Do not enter." and said " I think they are doing some work on the other side and don't want us to go out yet." I assured her it was alright to leave the bathroom.

My next little act happened on Tuesday as I was walking home from Panera down Main Street after having Coffee with Julia. I walked past an older woman pushing her hubby in a wheelchair. She was trying to push him up a sidewalk that ran alongside a building. As I was approaching I saw her push the chair forward only to be stopped by the front wheel wedging into a hole in the sidewalk where a chunk of concrete had fallen away. She backed up and tried again with the same result. I was just passing her when I saw that she was going to make a third attempt. Why didn't she just wheel the chair up the smooth paved road next to the sidewalk and then back onto the sidewalk I thought? So I stopped, asked if I could help and offered my advice. She looked up at me and replied "I only have one eye and I can't see what I'm doing." I explained that she was getting stuck in a hole. She took my advice and wheeled her hubby smoothly up the walk to his doctor appointment, I presume.

Continuing on, it made me chuckle a little to myself but mostly it made me feel good that my tiny little offer of help must have seemed like a much bigger offer of help to her.