Kindness: A Measure of the Spirit

I was overwhelmed with JOY!!! I could barely take it into my consciousness!  So many thoughts and emotions flooded me at once. How could someone’s simple act of kindness touch me so drastically? My usual analytical mind couldn’t even figure out why I reacted so strongly to it. I just was in ‘total bliss’!So many difficult situations that really seemed like horrific ‘challenges’ had hit our family lately. Putting one foot in front of the other seemed a Herculean effort at times. There had been ‘near – death’ situations, illness, injuries; many situations eliciting shock, compassion and empathy from my attentive heart.

 

I had tried to inspire myself to little avail this time. I looked up an inspiring quote by John Wanamaker: ‘One may walk over the highest mountain one step at a time.’ I tried to pay attention to  Jack Penn’s wise words: ‘One of the secrets of life is to make stepping stones out of stumbling blocks.’ Nothing seemed to help, until I walked into a Home Hardware shop this morning.

I drove silently to the bank and then on to the hardware store, reminding myself that I had forgotten to bring my cane that I used now more as a security crutch following a serious knee injury a few months earlier. Oh well! I could just be careful and walk slowly to make sure I didn’t trip on any roadway imperfections.  I was putting much attention on each step to avoid further injury and quietly entered the retail shop.

Turning the corner, I headed to the back area where I knew they had a couple of ‘butane’ cylinders that I needed for my ‘hair curling iron’. They were difficult to find now because the manufacturers weren’t making butane curling irons anymore for safety reasons. I didn’t care! Mine worked just fine and anything that makes my life easier is where I am ‘gonna go’.

As I noticed the manager walking also to that back corner, many thoughts entered my mind. ‘Should I continue along in that same direction and hope he moved out of my way, to prevent any potential bumping and possible miss- steps?’ ‘Should I divert my path and make a right angle turn and come in from a different direction?’ ‘I wonder what he is picking up from that same corner where my precious ‘butane’ is located.’ “I wonder if they have some in stock this time.’

Suddenly he turned and was handing me something. My mind didn’t seem to understand this fact. I was puzzled. I saw his outstretched hand with something blue in it. What was he doing, handing ME anything? I didn’t work there. I hadn’t even talked to him yet.

I looked at his hand in what seemed like slow motion as my head lowered to take it all in. I saw the familiar blue ‘butane package’. I still couldn’t understand what was happening. I looked up at his face as if to ask, ‘Are you sure you are giving that to me?’ He nodded. My mind registered this fact. I was in shock! ‘Do you have mental telepathy?’ ‘How did you know I was going to get that?’ 

He indicated that he knew it was a ‘staple’ for me and when he had seen me through the shop window, he knew I was coming in for it. He said he had ordered it just for me to make sure he had some in stock for when I came in. Again my mind was paralyzed with confusion. ‘How could a total stranger be ‘thinking’ about ME and MY needs amidst everything else going on in the store and in his life?’

I was laughing almost hysterically… like a giddy child. I was even giggling because I could hear it bubble up within me. I could hear myself thanking him and indicated great appreciation for what he had done. In a daze I headed to the exit still blubbering something about ‘how much it meant to me’.

My over analytical mind kicked in on the way home. Any time I react so strongly I take note. It was like my Spirit was coaching me or teaching me something. The thought fluttered into my consciousness that even though I was loved and appreciated and shown kindness by those close to me, receiving this from a total stranger was a rare occurrence. He had ‘seen me’, known what I needed, and took action to meet that need.

The impact on me felt monumental. It was as if the cells of my body had been injected with a new vitality. The remembrance of his unassuming smile infected my emotions as the doldrums vanished. His expression of compassion touched me deeply.

I have always thought that our misfortunes sometimes allow others the opportunity to express their own Spirits. Maybe this was one of those times. I was aware that he knew I had used a cane and had suffered an injury. Had he intentionally planned all of this to ‘lighten my burden just a bit?

The whole thing just reminded me again of the powerful, ripple effect of ‘love’.

This lovely man’s simple, premeditated act of kindness had revived my faith in ‘HUMANITY’!

This is the direction of Mankind- to the Consciousness of the Heart. My Soul absolutely recognized this. The feeling of the Soul is JOY and I felt it!!! 

 Love to all,

 Carolyn

 

An Angel?

An Angel?

       ”You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.”       

 Author: Ralph Waldo Emerson

I had just dropped my oldest daughter off at university and was heading home, during an ice storm when I spotted a young fellow braving the frigid, biting winds, by an open park. I thought he was the age of the local, university guys. He was struggling, leaning forward against the strength of this unseen force. My initial thought was to pick him up and get him home safely. My very next thought was to protect myself. I am a woman in this fairly open space in the darkening day-light. I drove on. I kept going.

He could be dangerous. He was old enough to look after himself. Someone else will pick him up if he needs help.

I kept driving.

I was almost to the highway that would take ‘me’ safely home. I had travelled about a mile from that young man. My thoughts were scrambled in my brain!

Keep going. Someone else can help him. Maybe he really ‘does’ need some help. He is not your responsibility….What if no one helps him and he really needs assistance?…. Keep going!

I stopped and turned around. I found him again. I realized he was younger than I had first thought. He was about 14 years old but large in structure, for a teenage lad. He did need help. I asked him if he wanted a drive home. He did. He got in.

I glanced at him and he was shivering markedly. He was so cold. I drove him about one mile to his home. My ‘nursing background’ informed me that he most likely would have succumbed to ‘hypothermia’ if he had had to walk that entire distance in that freezing weather. As he was getting out of the car I told him to rush in, and get warm, and have some hot chocolate… like I would say to my own kids or their friends.

He motioned to leave but stood near the doorway of the passenger side. He thanked me. I responded, “You are welcome, now rush in and get cosy in some blankets’. He didn’t move. Again he said, “Thank-you”. Again I said, “You are welcome, now hurry and get in out of the cold.”  I couldn’t understand why he wasn’t leaving. Then I realized I hadn’t really ‘looked’ at him since he had gotten out of the car. Instead, I was motioning with my head for him to get into the house. Again he said, more firmly this time, “Thank you”.

This was the third time he had said that, and everything that came to me in life, in ‘3s’ seem to be quite meaningful for me. I paused.

This time I looked up at him, and was startled by the look on his face! It wasn’t him! The features of this young adolescent boy were altered and softened. Even as I write these words, my entire body remembers those moments. I shiver even now in remembrance of that ‘moment in time’ that will stay with me forever! I saw ‘something’ behind this boy… something coming ‘through’ him to speak to me… Something or someone was ‘thanking’ me for making a choice….. for helping this boy….but there were no words! I felt it! I ‘knew’ it!

What was it? My mind wouldn’t work. I knew something profound was taking place. Somehow deep within me there was ‘knowledge’ without my mind working. There was connection with some Benevolent, Spiritual Being! How could this happen?

Where was the boy I had driven home? I looked at the Presence….this Essence that was merged with my car- mate. I felt the Divinity of it… I felt the Wisdom…. I felt the acknowledgement ‘from’ it that I had done something wonderful.  I just nodded…. My own wordless acknowledging of It’s presence… of its recognition of my ‘act of kindness’.

Just as suddenly, I felt the boy’s image change again. He was ‘there again’… as if nothing had ever happened. He smiled his boyish smile, waved and swiftly got into his home to recover.

What the heck had happened? I was stunned speechless- if I had even tried to speak which I wouldn’t have, since there was no real person there to talk to!

I started to drive towards the highway again- about 1 mile away- I was startled by something new, I realized there was a scent of perfume wafting throughout the whole car. I actually stopped just after I got onto the highway to see if my husband had put some new air- freshener in the car that might have tipped over and spilled. The scent was so strong!! It was pervading the car with a sweet light fragrance- one that was unfamiliar to me-I could find no obvious cause.

Several moments later it began to dissipate. (When I got home I researched and found that sudden scents of perfume could mean an ‘angelic presence’.) I thought of my young friend now warm and safe in his home. Had this been his Guardian Angel, thanking me for aiding him? Was this glorious perfume scent there to validate my own sanity to me  and that I hadn’t imagined it all?

My analytical mind wondered: Was this boy someone special?  Had I saved his life so that he could do something spectacular in this life? Did this happen to show me angels existed? Was it to show me that listening to our instincts and intuitions are important… OR… Was it not about some great mission this boy had but….simply ‘Presence’ acknowledging a single act of kindness…. and … ultimately ‘reflecting’ to ‘me’, my Self?              

                                      “The best portion of a good man’s life – his little, nameless,                          unremembered acts of kindness and acts of love”.

Author: William Wordsworth