Holding a door open for the next person – gathering shopping carts left in a parking lot – a smile and a wave – picking up litter – paying forward coffee in the drive thru – a quick note – how do you show kindness? How do others show you kindness? I loved this quick video from Kid President who doesn’t like a  confetti of kindness?

A letter to the future from kid President video

This week, focused on kindness, brought many unique experiences I may have missed had my focus not been so sharply on kindness. I’d like to highlight three of them.

First Tuesday, we made a 200+mile round-trip journey to a business event. On the way home – a storm was just coming in – the roads we getting wet, but it was warm enough not to be ice. We swerved, we skid, this sounds much more exciting then it really was – we ended up on the side of the road in a pull out that was not clear – it was covered in snow – as in snow to my knees – up  over the running boards – we were stuck. No cell reception – did I mention I live in a rural area – 30 miles in any direction to a town or city – after 11pm – I could have been ugly – instead it was a tremendous outpouring of kindness in action. A few minutes after we verified completely that we were indeed stuck – we had to try – the first car – one traveling the other direction – came by – they slowed, they passed, they turned around!

A young man exited the SUV and asked if we needed help – as he got out car number 2 headed in our direction stopped to give aid. With three men ready to push, my husband – and the two living kindnesses,  I climbed into the drivers seat and tried to get us moving… nope, not quite. Kind guy number 2 – needed to be on his way – saying he’d let highway patrol know 15 miles south when cell reception returned.

Kind guy #1 and his passenger put their heads together – and thought straps hook on and pull – as we didn’t have enough bodies to just push the vehicle out. Third car on the lonely road stops and the couple pull their coats on tight slip their gloves on and prepared to push – this time with two small straps between the vehicles – my husband in the drivers seat – the couple, myself, my daughter in the deep now churned snow, and on the first try one strap snapped but it was enough to help us more that fraction and regain traction and up onto the road we went.

It wasn’t even 24 hours before the Universe asked us to repay the kindness we got home and a couple hours later just about 2am our son Zane calls – “hey Mom, I need some help,” what’s up – some friends of mine were on their way home tonight and decided to come through Salt Creek Canyon -( not the canyon we were in up above), mom they hit an elk – the tow truck took them back to Nephi, but I have to be to work at 5 and with the snow I don’t know if I’ll be done in time, is there anyway you can go pick them up, theirs four of them and the nearest family to any of them is over 4 hours away.

The snow had begun to clear but a thick, dense fog, unlike I’d ever before seen, had settled. I was glad Zane’s friends were at the restaurant at a truck stop – warm and safe, but now to keep us safe, there and back we just kept a PMA (positive mental attitude) we saw several deer and elk (and to see them they were on the road with us) but safely made it to pick up and drop off the four friends.

The fog was so thick we were tired from the event and struggling to get back on the road. We didn’t have to go out of our way, but neither did the people who stopped to help us.

This week has flown and now at the end as the emotion has passed with snow drifts and new friends and foggy animal covered roads I find myself struck not at how often people are kind, as we have focused on it in some respects they rather all run together, but I am not discounting my observation of the kindness or the importance of each and every kindness, no matter how insignificant we may remember it – because at some point the facts and our memory may become as foggy as the road we drove – but I still remember how I felt when that car passed us and turned back around, I remember how I felt when my son told me what his friends had told them about our foggy adventure as I look back on my kindness week and on my life each day – I hope that my interaction with others will be that feeling they want to remember a kindness, warm, loving.

How many times do we just pass up the opportunity to use the fog as the reason that prevents us from being kind? My fellow MKE member Lori King made her own observations on our kindness week, you can read them here 🙂

How does it feel to be Humble and Kind?