Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Random Kindness

This morning I ventured out to a nearby drive-thru Starbucks and got the most amazing gift. The woman in front of me paid for my order. And, as luck would have it, I had ordered a half pound of coffee beans too. I was moved to tears to be treated so kindly by a generous stranger.

Isn't it amazing what a little kindness can do for a person? I always say you never know how you're going to affect a person, so you should try to be nice as often as you can.

When I lived in San Francisco I would sometimes pay the bridge toll of the car behind me. It gave me a huge lift to do something small and nice for someone I didn't know with no expectations for any kind of thank you or return gift. I loved it.

About the time I was in the habit of paying strangers' tolls there was a saying that was going around, "Practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty." I love that creed.

No one had ever paid my bridge toll, not that I expected it, but I feel like today's coffee outing was a full-circle moment for those years in the Bay Area.

Thank you, stranger!

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