Day 109: Traveling Kindness
“Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.” -Dalai Lama
It’s a whole new life, this life of practicing kindness.
I was traveling today and I had so many opportunities to practice simple acts of kindness and it was fabulous and inspiring! My lovely friend took me to the airport after we dropped her kids to school. We arrived to LAX fairly quickly. I arrived a few hours before my flight and was hoping to get on the 8:45 flight instead of my 10:40 flight. The problem was that it was already 8:25. Luckily, the 8:45 was delayed until 9:25. Perfect! I got through security swiftly, found the appropriate gate, walked up and nicely asked the agent if I could fly stand by. She explained that the list was already filled with 15 people. I asked if I should bother adding my name. She said yes. I thanked her, sat down and told myself that I was going to get on that flight, and within 20 minutes I was called up and given a boarding pass. I gave her a big smile, enthusiastically thanked her, and told her that she made my day!! She looked up in surprise, and gave me the biggest and most genuine smile back! I think I made her day too!
I continued to greet and thank every airline employee I saw. They all individually stopped what they were doing, looked up and returned warm smiles. The ticket agent, paused, looked up, met my eyes, greeted me by name and told me to have a beautiful day! I found an open seat, room for my bag, and everyone was so pleasant and nice. Eventually a young man, traveling to tour Northern California universities asked to sit in the middle seat next to me. He was so polite, sweet and open to converse. We shared, had a lovely conversation about passion, books, where we grew up and much more. When it was time to part ways, he wished me luck and I did the same. Later in the airport, we ran into each other and he introduced himself. We had forgotten to exchange names! We wished each other well and both left feeling joyful.
I practiced kindness, smiling, greeting, positive thinking and positive affirmations. My day of travel was beautiful, made me feel joyous and so happy! I lived in the moment and in the flow of life knowing that the kindness I practiced was reflected back to me tenfold.
Jennifer Palazzo
Photo Courtesy of FreeImages.com and The Very Kind Interact Images
4 Acts of Kindness 