Gratitude: The Kindness of Strangers

I'm not much of a people person. I have a tendency to keep to myself. Generally I like to stay in my own little world and I don't tend to interact a whole lot with those outside of it.

That said, I'd really like to take a moment to express my gratitude for the kindness of strangers. Just a little smile or a nice comment from someone can really make a difference. Of course there are people who aren't so kind, but since this is a post about gratitude I'll just stick with kindness.

Being kind doesn't take a lot. You don't have to do anything grand or difficult. Just a smile, a friendly look, a thank you, holding the door for someone, letting someone merge in a busy traffic situation, a compliment, putting a grocery cart away for someone, not judging...there are so many ways that we can be kind!

All of these kindnesses and more have been performed for me in the past. A couple of months ago we were out to dinner with D's Dad and all our kids. Often our kids can be a handful. That's to be expected with seven of them, and on top of sheer numbers, some of them have rambunctious personalities. We were minding our own business, and for the most part the kids were being good. As we were getting ready to order our waitress let us know that a couple who had been in the restaurant when we arrived were impressed with how good our kids were behaving, and had paid for two pies of our choice off the menu. We don't know who they were, but it was a very kind and generous thing for them to do for our family. A lot of times it seems like people only notice our kids when they are misbehaving, so to have someone notice that they were being good was really a wonderful moment for us.
I'm really grateful to that couple, and to the many people who are kind to me each day!