Stories of Kindness from Around the World

It was finally the day for my wife to travel back from her parent's house on the East coast to where we live here in the Bay Area (West coast). She set out her day with a 6:00 am beach walk on the east coast and geared for the airport to travel by air.

Little did we know what this day was about to bring! All southwest flights nationwide were facing delays and cancelations due to a massive unexpected downtime of their IT flight system. She had to wait for about 4 hours to get to her first flight and we both knew the second flight will probably be delayed too. As she approached the first lay over and learned that the second flight was canceled. With hundreds of angry, tired, anxious travelers who were about to loose their patience, she instead decided to choose kindness.

The last flight from Phoenix to our city was also delayed but it was still a far shot that she can try to get. A little later near the gate she found out about 100 some people already standing for about 2 hours near the gate trying to confirm this flight for themselves. At that moment she saw an airport employee assisting a wheelchair passenger and somehow felt like connecting with both of them. She noticed the employee had torn shoes yet he walked exuding a huge smile. She decided to genuinely find out how is his day was going and that sparked a connection.

One of the agents already assisting the passengers in one of the rows saw this and something and that sparked something in him. He approached my wife and told her that in a couple minutes he is going to get her the confirmed tickets to this last flights. She was fairly surprised and those who noticed were surprised and starting to complain. Because the line of hundreds waiting suddenly saw this 101th passenger getting the ticket while the others are still waiting! The agent's connectedness came out of the ripple of connection Kara (my wife) felt for the employee assisting the wheel chair passenger and that passenger herself.

This same agent stood up for her when other ladies ahead of Kara started to complain. He didn't ask for anything in return, neither did he tell her why he decided to show kindness at that moment in time to her! She was blown away from his kindness and as she arrived home finally at 1:30 am. I was rocked as well with this amazing story which I then decided to share in parts here. This was an inspiration for me and Kara and it rang with truth and reminded me of Mahatma Gandhi's word's - The ways of truth and love has always won! This story will remain a source of reminder for me to remain grounded in compassion and connectedness when things around me don't always go as planned. Stepping up the practice for this.