An act of kindness

Yesterday, while I was standing in a checkout line, a woman that I did not know, someone who I will probably never see again, gave me a coupon for 20 percent off any purchase at Joanne Fabrics.

She had just finished paying for her items and looking around, approached me without words and handed me the coupon with a smile. Before I could say, “thank you,” she was gone. I smiled all the way to my car and through most of the afternoon.

It was a little thing but also a big thing as we enter this new year with calls on a many sides to practice kindness, to be more aware of others and their needs.

I found this older column, written about this very same thing many years ago, and share it again with the purpose only of asking for kindness.

This morning, I sat at my computer thinking about the columns that I had started but not finished, trying to find inspiration.

Stalled by the ups and downs of everyday life, I more or less unconsciously opened my Facebook page and shuffled through the updates about job promotions, pictures of adorable children, a mention of a local garage sale,  photos of dogs and cats in shelters and a whiny complaint about a difficult boss.

I found something from my internet cousin (a second cousin I found on the web) titled: “21 Pictures That Will Restore Your Faith In Humanity.” There they were, just as the title promised, an achingly beautiful composition of gentle, sometimes heroic acts that reaffirmed what we all now to be true;  that people are, at heart and practice, good.

There was a picture of the Japanese pensioners who volunteered to work in the Fukushima power plant to save younger workers from exposure to deadly radiation.

There was a note from an elderly woman who gave a young waiter a $20 tip because he reminded her of her deceased son and because he was kind; there was the burly fireman who resuscitated an orange cat, boys who rescued a dog, men who saved a sheep foundering in the ocean and more. People were unselfishly reaching beyond themselves to strangers and helpless animals.

My mind flew back to a week ago when I was traveling on Route 174 between Marcellus and Camillus.

I was about 9 a.m. The drive was more mechanical than motivating. The morning paper was full of awful stories about corruption in the market place, shootings, bullying, man’s inhumanity to man.

Allergies were making me miserable and I hadn’t slept well the night before. Every joint hurt.  I remember making a mental note that I wasn’t appreciating the scenic drive that has always been a tonic for me.  It was not one of my finest hours.

A car was stopped in the middle of the road ahead of me.  There were no houses nearby.

Was the driver ill?  Did I have my cell phone to call 911? As I slowed down to investigate, the driver’s door of the stopped car opened and a young woman got out.

She waived me on with one hand while indicting that I should proceed slowly.  As I pulled around her car as instructed, I saw why she stopped.

A small animal was standing frozen in front of her car.

She was urging it, whatever it was, to continue across the road. I watched as she  clucked and encourage to move on.

It finally moved to the safety of the wooded area along the roadside.

We smiled at each other and she got back in her car.

I went on to Syracuse in tears. Yes, big sobbing tears, a release, a cleansing of fatigue and pain that left me smiling, forgetting about allergies and arthritis. I had witnessed something so sublime that there are not enough words to capture its meaning … An exquisite example of the beauty of a kind act.

That young woman is testimony to values that rise above materialism, the mendacious, and the ego-centric.  Her caring for that small animal is the essence of beauty.

Her reward was knowing that the little creature was safe.

I’m sure that she didn’t expect more, but as the universe unfolds, I’m equally sure that goodness will follow her.

There is beauty in kindness. It is all around us. It is ours to do and see, to witness to practice.  It is in all creation, waiting for our attention, waiting for each of us to participate.

It never fails to come home.

In that kindness, I again find my muse.