A Moment of Kindness

It wasn’t really a bad day, but there had been enough inconveniences to put me in a bad mood. I tripped and bruised my knee. The milk was sour, a fact I only discovered after it was in my mouth. I was stood-up at a meeting I’d confirmed. The zipper on my jacket broke. None of these events were earth-shattering, but I wasn’t keen to repeat them either. I decided to console myself with a cup of tea on the way back to the office.

At the drive-thru, I rolled down my window and held out some money to the cashier, but rather than taking it she beamed at me and said, “Your order is paid for.” This didn’t immediately make sense to me. I kept holding my money out. “Pardon?” I asked.  “The guy ahead of you, he paid for your order,” the smiling clerk explained. Neat! Suddenly, all seemed right with the world again.

My tea-break benefactor had only saved me about a dollar, but their kindness was so much more valuable. It changed my day. Share on X

It would have been easy to get bogged down by everything that had gone wrong that morning, but this one small glimmer of kindness reframed it for me. I gave the clerk some money and asked her to use it to cover someone else’s order. My tea-break benefactor had only saved me about a dollar, but their kindness was so much more valuable. It changed my day.

Over the last year, the global pandemic may have limited our ability to socialize but it hasn’t stalled our natural tendencies to show kindness. In fact, it has compelled many of us to do more.

I’m filled with hope and joy when I hear stories of people who have helped the elderly in their neighbourhood, or of communities that have rallied together to support a local food bank or another worthy cause.

These days I am being more open with my money because the needs of many charities are great, but as that cup of tea bought by a stranger in the drive-thru taught me, kindness is so much more than that. I am also learning to seize tiny moments of kindness each day — letting someone else go ahead in line, taking time to interact with the store clerk or saying hello with a smile during my daily walk.

The coming months may seem uncertain, but by practicing simple gestures of kindness, we might just change someone’s bad day into a good one. Kindness might even change the direction of a life. I think we all have time for that.