Kind Encounters

Day 104: Kind Encounters

“Spread love everywhere you go, let no one ever come to you without leaving happier.” Mother Teresa

I made it my mission to be extra kind to everyone today, especially the most unpleasant people. The people that were having a bad day, or a bad moment, or in one case swearing and throwing her arms up at the people on the train platform. I wanted to see if I could pull the kindness out of people by being extra gentle, engaging, and patient. I was able to engage with two different people that were both in a very unhappy place when I encountered them. The first was a computer repair person. He was very grumpy and short with me. I just kept smiling and saying thank you and communicating how much I appreciated what he was doing. By the time he was done with the computer, he was smiling and apologizing for being short with me. I continued to smile and engage him in a conversation that ended with both of us happy and the better for having spent time with each other.

The second incident was on the the train platform. I accidently bumped into a woman, and I quickly apologized. She very angrily said: “Go on, go ahead of me, everyone else is, everyone else is pushing me today, why not you too.” (She also said some words I cannot repeat.) I just smiled. To my surprise she sat next to me and continued to demonstrate her anger. I apologized once again and tried to engage her in friendly conversation. She wasn’t having it. After a few minutes, I tried again, this time she was a little more open, and answered a few of my questions about where she worked in the city, where she commuted from and what she did for work. She went into a very long story about work and how unhappy she was. I remained attentive and listened. After a while, she softened even more and she ended up telling me about her deceased husband, who had passed over 20 years ago. She told me about how they were best friends, challenged each other, and how deep their love was. In the span of 30 minutes, she went from being very angry and upset, to smiling and wishing me the most pleasant rest of my day.

These were two very simple interactions that left me feeling happy, joyful and inspired.

Spread a little kindness!

Jennifer Palazzo

Photo Courtesy of FreeImages.com and The Very Kind Luca Cinacchio