Stories of Kindness from Around the World

When you measure the distance between towns on foot, walk to places you thought could only be reached by car, or talk to neighbors with whom you never felt necessary to interact, it will shift your mind! I live in the suburb north of San Francisco, driving is considered the main transportation option for most residents here. I still remember how excited I was when I first learned to drive 10 years ago. Driving at night, the headlights softly illuminating the road ahead, with music gently soothing my heart, I was filled with joy, a joy of independence in a foreign land! I had a photo taken of me hugging my white slender car and sent it to my family in China. I loved my car! Sometimes she was my only companion in lonely nights.

Yet, as time went by, that excitement wore off. I dreaded driving, burning gas in bumper-to-bumper traffic and feeling isolated and agitated. Everyone seems to be in my way especially when I am in a hurry. One night three years ago, at a small intersection, a deer leapt out from the dark, bounced off the hood of my moving car, and landed across the street… She never got back up. Wailing on the wheel, I hated my car. I hated driving. But driving was so intertwined in my human activities at that time.

When I joined the 21-day mindful walking challenge, I began to walk with a conscious mind. A couple of weeks ago, I felt so liberated after walking in the dark for one and half an hours to go see a documentary film on climate change. It assured me that we could definitely change our stubborn habits and habitual thinking that are conditioned by the fast-paced profit-driven system, one step at a time, literarily.

During those mindful walking days, I said “hello” to a neighbor named June, who’s lived in the senior home across the street for a year. But I’ve never paid heed to her. She was sweeping the sidewalk across the street when I said “hi” for the first time. She returned my greetings and asked, “What happened to your hair?” I touched my hair and wondered what might have gone wrong. Seeing the confusion on my face, she then realized that she had mistaken me for another neighbor whom she knew. She walked across the street and said, “You sounded so friendly that I thought…” We both laughed.

I talked to the new neighbor next door who just had a baby, and two different gardeners on different days and listened to their joy in gardening after working all day in front of a computer screen. I smiled to everyone passing by me. A friend walked with me one day and held my hand as I closed my eyes to experience being blind. We stopped frequently so I could take mental pictures with apertures of flesh of all the beauty I often missed on my busy days, a purple flower, a tree branch with shining green leaves, a bird's nest, a small buddha on a balcony railing… We stopped by a persimmon tree and met the owner and her two kids. Her family moved here from Germany three months ago. We asked if we could pick some persimmons. “Yes please. I don’t know what to do with them,” she said.

I walked to the streets that I normally would not pass through if I had an agenda in mind, and discovered a tiny free library on the sidewalk. I began to question if I had really lived in this town all these years. It’s a completely new town that I know so little about!

I hold deep gratitude for the 21-day Mindful Walking Challenge hosted by Nicole Huguenin. One day, my feet might reach far lands again, yet I know wonder is right here and right now. Be amazed!