Stories of Kindness from Around the World

Gratitude For A Flat Tire


--by cabbage, posted Sep 23, 2021
Yesterday after a full day of masked in-person teaching, I returned to my car ready to drive home. While I was inside the car, a young woman walked around my car and indicated she wanted to tell me something---she said "your back tire is flat!" and walked away.

I used the tire gauge that my dad had sent me a while ago to check all the tires and indeed one was completely flat. Fortunately, we have AAA and I called the number so they could change the tire and put on my spare tire. The car was in a place where it would have been very challenging for me to do this, but they did it quickly.

I had to wait for a while for them to show up, but I didn't mind at all because I could just use that time to meditate, breathe, and pause. I also had packed a little container of apple slices and carrot sticks so I was not feeling "hangry"! It gave me time to gaze at the sky and just sit quietly (I was looking forward to a virtual meditation circle that evening and figured that my meditation sit would just have to be in the car instead of at home--got a good 25 minute "sit"!)

Afterward, I had to drive home at 50mph on the highway (since that's recommended for the spare tire) and while cars were whizzing by me at 80+mph I was in the "slow lane" and enjoying every mile of the 40-minute drive home. I was glad to make it home in time for the circle's second hour of sharing on the theme of building a fire and leaving "space" for the flame to catch.

I felt that the flat tire had given me that space to breathe and let the gratitude I felt "catch" and spread.

Gratitude overflowed...

to the kindness of the stranger who alerted me to the flat tire--blessings to her
to my dad for the tire pressure gauge (I feel his love and care always)
to my husband for insisting we renew AAA for a 5-year membership
to myself for packing a healthy snack for the end of the long day
to the AAA guy who did his job so well and efficiently and kindly
to the universe for giving me the space to see the beauty of the sky and clouds
to the "slow" drive home savoring my favorite 80s hits on the radio :-)
to the guy at the tire shop who was so sweet and because of the flat tire I ended up replacing all of my tires which it turned out needed replacing anyway (5+ years!)
to meditation practice and mindfulness which allowed me to savor this unexpected "space" in my day
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Readers Comments

Rajni wrote: Your story inspires us to be grateful for little things that leads to big blessings of god. May he always protect you. Thanks for sharing.
Mish wrote: I do think the person who alerted you might have been your guardian angel, Cabbage, based on all the blessings you found 😉. You really know how to focus on the blessings...and you might also be an alchemist, as you turned a lessing into multiple blessings 😘
mindyjourney wrote: So many gratitudes :)))). I have had a similar experience w/a stranger alerting me to an almost flat tire. Thank you for allowing that space of blessings to emerge 🚙 ❤️.
michelelpurce wrote: what a wonderful day for sure. things that could have affected you so negatively and you turned them all into blessings. :) so happy for your positiveness! :)
pluto178 wrote: Beautiful x
scully wrote: Thanks for turning a difficult situation into one of seeing the blessings
unknown wrote: Turning lemons to lemonade ... Inspiring 🙏

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