Stories of Kindness from Around the World

This afternoon coming back from seeing my mom; reading stories to her and a few scary moments that looked like this was it, I was driving home. I took the route that was more like a canyon Drive with beautiful sceneries to think and process my feelings. All of a sudden I heard a pop. I knew right away what had happened - a big flat tire! I pulled to the side, but this was a canyon drive with not much shoulder space, and it happened to be around a curve that people couldn't see me. That made it dangerous. Cars were speeding up unconsciously passing me. I couldn't get out. Within minutes, I saw a van stopped at a distance behind me. The gentleman walked out, wearing a mask offering help, and I dared to walk out of the car very carefully. It was so narrow. He moved my car a bit out of the way while I was talking to AAA. After much back and forth with AAA (since they couldn't find my location, it was rather remote) they said with all the priority they gave me since I was in a dangerous place, they can send assistance in 20-30 minutes. The gentleman offered to look at my spare tire to make sure it's ok before I hang up with AAA. Before I knew it, he took it out and started changing the tire for me, while it was a dangerous location with cars passing by so fast. By the time I was done with AAA, he had changed my tire!


I told him I can't believe it and he said, oh things happen and I said, that's not what I mean. I believe life happens, but I can't believe he stopped by and helped me before AAA did. He laughed. I thanked him and he left. And in reality, I do think things happen and I don't get upset. I also think that the universe bends toward goodness and unconsciously does think that kindness will show up. But here is the nugget, before laddership (an educational program I'm participating in), I would have thought of them as two separate things. After my reflections for the past 3 weeks, I think these are all continuing things. The event and generosity followed are one continuous transaction. As we said goodbye, I promised him to pay it forward. I saw in my mirror that the van just followed me, making sure I was ok. At the light, I got a chance to see the entire family in the van. A beautiful young wife with gorgeous children in the back. They all gave me a big smile and waved at me. The children were wishing me luck! They were so cute. I thought about what a role model for those young children to learn about service and compassion. And I thought how lucky I was to be the recipient of such generosity in a hot dry southern CA afternoon.

Love you all,
Fran