One Act of Kindness

A young woman with a screaming baby watched as the cashier rang up the baby formula. The cashier called out the total and the woman very quietly said, "Oh, I have a coupon for that."  She seemed nervous as she handed the coupon to the cashier.  She reached out and held a pacifier in her baby's mouth and said, "Shhhh," very softly. Her eyes stayed on the cashier as she scanned the coupon.  The cashier told her the price of the formula with the coupon.  The woman's voice shook as she said, "Oh, okay." She began clumsily digging in her purse to find the extra money she needed to cover the cost of the formula to feed her screaming baby.

Two young women stood in line behind her. They shifted their weight from leg to leg.  They sighed loudly in annoyance and one kept shaking her head and rolling her eyes.

The woman with the baby looked up at them, her tired eyes filled with tears and she said, "I'm so sorry."  The two women just glared at her.  One woman said, "Look at what she's wearing."  They both laughed.

She continued to frantically dig in her purse.  "I know I have some change in here, if I could just find it.  I'm sorry."  Her baby continued to scream.

Towards the back of the line was an older man.  He walked up to the woman with the baby and said, "Hi, I would love to help you out.  How much do you need?"  An expression of relief flooded the woman's face and she said, "Well, I only need $1.29 and I thought I had it but I can't find anything in this purse."  The man said, "Oh, is that all?  Don't worry about it."  The woman watched as he paid the remaining amount on the formula.  "There you go," he said.  He touched the baby's little foot and said, "He's all set."

"Thank you so much," She said.  She looked back at the two women in line behind her and said, "I'm so sorry it took so long."  One of them forced a smile and said, "It's okay."

There are so many people in this world whose selfishness really blows my mind at times.  I'm not perfect and I don't pretend to be perfect.  However, judging others by the amount of money they have, by the clothes they wear, by the cars they drive and the homes they reside in could cause you to miss out on knowing someone great . . . or even experiencing a wonderful moment of helping a stranger, or even just being nice to some one.  Shouldn't a person's character be what's important?

I have been in the position of that young mother.  It's not an easy position to be in, but having one person extend a little bit of kindness can be a really big bright spot in your life--or someone else's.  I have been told that I'm too nice to people, especially those who don't deserve it. Maybe that is true, but it's who I am. Perhaps those horrible people who don't deserve some one to be nice to them NEED some one to show them a little kindness.

Who knows, one act of kindness can go a long way!