Random Acts of Kindness

This morning, the alarm goes off at 6:00, again at 6:15, and at 6:30, when I finally drag myself out of bed, still exhausted from our late night of Christmas wrapping and box packing, and I'm shivering and irritated at the sound of rain hitting the window pane.  I leave the house at ten after seven, drive to the train station and have to park closer to a curb than I would have liked given the two parking violations I've already received in the past two months.  I trudge to the station, still shivering, and grumbling about the lack of available parking.  I already dread the small, yellow slip of paper that might be tucked underneath my windshield wiper when I return in 11 hours and that would be added to the slowly growing collection on my passenger's seat.

I stand in line for the train with my head down, tucking myself tightly into my coat to attempt a feeling of warmth.  The train arrives and the man with the bicycle gets on first, just after the friendly station security guard informs him that he will need to get on with his bike last.  I grumble internally a bit more about how rude people are as I board the train and go to my customary top row, forward facing seat.  I make myself as comfortable as possible in the seat, and doze for the next 50 minutes as the train heads toward Seattle.

At 8:18 we pull into the Seattle station and I get off the train, unhappily reaching for my umbrella when I see that it has begun to rain again.  I walk down the street, groggy from the past 50 minutes of terrible sleep, and keep my head down once again, shielding my face from the biting cold wind.  As I near the halfway point in my walk, someone approaches from behind, and I sigh heavily, not in the mood to deal with the constant barrage of remarks or requests from the homeless men that heavily populate my route to work.

"Excuse me, miss."

I contemplate ignoring him and just increasing my pace, but he's already even with me on my right and so I'm forced to look at him or feel like a heartless bitch.  I'm surprised to see that it's a handsome, older gentleman wearing a nice beige overcoat and a dashing fedora cocked at ever so slight an angle. 

He smiles at me congenially when he says, "I'm sorry, I don't mean to bother you, and I'm not trying to "hit on you" or be overly aggressive.  But I just have to tell you--I see you on the train every morning and I just think you are one of the classiest, prettiest ladies I've ever seen."

I'm in shock for a moment, and then I feel a smile breaking over my face, and I giggle as I tell him, "You've just made my day!"

He laughs and nods politely as we part ways, and suddenly my head is up and I feel a bounce in my step that hasn't been there in weeks.  It's a small reminder that a little bit of human interaction can change the course of a day.  I hold the door for the person behind me as I walk into my office building and I smile at the person with whom I share the elevator. 

Tomorrow, maybe I'll be grumbling about the rain, or the parking, or the cold, but today?  Today, I'm smiling because of one person who went a little bit out of their way to be kind.

Comments

[Jenn]

Most excellent! I love random acts like that.

[Operation Pink Herring]

That is so nice. An older couple made my day in Panera Bread this weekend by complimenting my cute little hat. I resolved to give out more compliments too!

[La]

What a wonderful act of kindness! Not to be all hippy dippy, but wouldn't the world be like a million times better if we could all do something that nice every day??

:)

[Steph.]

Wow. What an amazing complement! That's really neat.

[Miss A]

What an amazing compliment! I just... am speechless!!!

[Clink]

Gah! How sweet.

And, tangent: I just looked at your wedding photos and OMIGOD GORGEOUS. Love.

[Becky]

Awww...how nice -- and completely true:) I have to admit that it's kind of difficult for me to relay compliments like that to even my friends, I'm just not a verbally affectionate person, even though I know it goes so far. I tend to show my emotions/loyalty more in "doing."

[Fraulein N]

Awww, that was really nice. You deserve it.

[Michelle & the City]

wow. compliments from kind strangers would make anyone's day! so nice.