Everyday Kindness
There’s a lot going on in America right now, and it’s all just so much to absorb and changing so fast. I can’t look straight at it, because I get overwhelmed and outraged and I want to go to bed and pull the covers over my head.
Lately I’ve been practicing looking at the world at a microlevel, instead. It’s one of the things keeping me sane right now.
And here’s the thing: Have you noticed that most people actually are pretty nice to each other in everyday life?
And not just friends and family…I’m talking about strangers, too.
The other day I dropped one of my bags coming out of the King Soopers and my produce went everywhere. One woman stopped and helped me gather my avocados and we laughed at how those little suckers can really roll.
People hold the door for each other coming out of buildings — I’ve noticed many men and women doing this, silently observing some kind of unspoken door etiquette.
I was out walking Moose and a guy going the opposite direction flagged me down and said, “Did you see the bald eagle?” and pointed above our heads. We stood in wonder together for a few minutes. (giving more evidence to my theory that when we see something beautiful or we’re struck by a moment of awe, we want to share it).
Yesterday I gave away two big bags of cheese to a stranger in my town because I’m going to give up dairy for a while. She came and picked them up, and I consider this a kindness because I didn’t have to feel guilty about throwing away perfectly good food and she got to enjoy some tasty parmesan.
And as always, I love seeing how friends and family take care of each other.
Right now, my BFF Sarah is recovering from hip replacement surgery, and her boyfriend is taking top-notch care of her and is helping her in and out of bed and keeping her fed with healthy food. It makes me so happy to know that this incredible human being is being so well cared for.
In February, I had to ship a super valuable, fragile, very weirdly-shaped item, and my friends Bethany and Stan bent over backward to pack it carefully and put my mind at ease that it would get to the recipient safely.
My sister flew to Pennsylvania last weekend to help my parents host a giant garage sale. She’s a consistently good human being, even when no one is looking.
Sometimes The Blonde One just texts me or calls to see how I’m doing or see how my day was. I know he’s busy with school and I love that he takes a moment to do this.
I think if we have our eyes open for goodwill on a micro level, it will keep us from losing our minds looking at the big picture.
There’s nothing I can do about how divided and weird our country is right now.
But everyday kindness is there if you look for it.
Have you noticed it lately?
Lovely. Yes, I experience the same thing, people being kind over "small" things. It's good not to lose sight of the goodness of most people.
I'm trying to look for small positive things in my daily life, too. As you noted, the shit show can be overwhelming these days. I saw an Instagram post today that asked "Who do you want to be when this is all over?" Keep moving forward toward whatever your goals are, even if your goal is to just make it through another day! Kindness can be powerful!