While skiing this weekend I performed two random acts of kindness and received the best smiles from the recipients. It made the weekend special (well the company and the skiing didn't hurt either!)
Now for those of you who know me well, you may have noticed I have a tendency to "get very deep" into thought and I can even be a little intense at times! I know, I know. But I've always felt that this allowed me to really feel things, to really see things, to project that energy out.
So I didn't have anything planned for my commitment to kindness, in fact I was planning on a little weekend getaway of skiing. But kindness shouldn't take a holiday so I opened my heart to the possibilities and let it happen.
My two acts of kindness were very simple. First on Saturday, in a crowded ski lodge, a woman was walking up a flight of stairs. No big deal, right? Well she was wearing ski boots and carrying a tray loaded with food and drink. As any skier know it's definitely an acquired taste. Walking in the ski boots I mean, although the food in the lodge may be as well.
As I came by her, I heard her exclaim "Oh!" and saw one of the sodas she was carrying, topple off of the tray. So here is this woman, packed into a ski suit, balancing on a large flight of stairs in ski boots, hands full of a "shakey" tray, watching her Pepsi roll around the stairs slowly leaking out. I shuffled over in my ski boots, picked up the soda (saving at least 3/4 of the contents) and put it back on her tray.
Now before you think I'm going around waiting for something to happen so I can act and before you think that I deserve a pat on the back, it's not that at all. I think I did what most people would have done and I helped that lady. I just happened to be there. She thanked me profusely, smiled grandly and we laughed about trying to balance the tray and walk in the boots like Frankenstein.
The second act was on the ski slopes. A little boy maybe six or seven was skiing with his father. The boy had dropped his pole and was struggling to come back up the hill to get it. Now I saw the father below the child waiting and I saw the boy struggle to climb back up the hill. I skied over, picked up the pole, skied down to the boy and handed it over. The smile on that little boy's face made my day. It again was nothing more than something someone else may have done but I saw my own son one day, maybe needing a little help from a stranger and I stepped in.
I think of these moments as times for me to reach beyond myself and realize I could be in that situation one day. The habits we form in the simple tasks in life will be the skills we rely upon during the troubled times.
I also feel connected when I do these things for others. These are small everyday things that may not have an impact or the people may forget right after I leave, but I feel good about it.
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