A Random Act Of Kindness On a Not So Random Day

The morning started out as crazy as ever. I felt like the Tasmanian Devil spinning from room to room in the house. It was the first day of school and even though I had a busy day ahead, I was in complete "Back to School" mode. Now was the time to make sure my sleepy, "Boys of Summer" were packed, fed and excited for school.

I dropped both boys off to school with multiple hugs, kisses and tears and just enough time to grab a coffee at Starbucks before heading downtown to work. As I approached the coffee shop, I noticed that there was a long line of cars waiting to get into the parking lot, so I quickly decided to turn down a side street and park at a meter.

As I spun my wheel to park, the woman in the space in front of me was getting out of her car. She closed the door, we made eye contact and smiled at each other.  She was at the meter when I got out of the car. She looked my way and yelled, "You are good for about an hour, have a great day," while cranking my meter.  I yelled, "You didn't have to do that, but thank you," and poof, she was gone.

A random act of kindness made my morning a bit brighter. She didn't know that I was in a total rush.  She didn't know how much I cried when I left my kindergartener for his first full day of school or felt nerves for my second grader as he walked up to his class line. She didn't realize that I now had to hurry to work and was a little stressed. She didn't know how much she brightened my day. All she knew was that I parked behind her on a day she thought she would do something nice for someone.

Found on Wikipedia.com, "A random act of kindness is a selfless act performed by a person or people wishing to either assist or cheer up an individual person or people."  What a wonderful concept. And, believe it or not, there is a foundation and website set up to support this mission. Randomactsofkindness.org is filled with stories, kindness ideas and resources to help you to perform your random act of kindness. 

So, it is time to get out there and perform your random act of kindness today.  I plan to incorporate these ideas into my life.

And, a big THANK YOU goes out to the woman who covered my meter that day.  I really appreciated it. YOU deserve some kindness right back at ya!