There is a decorative box sitting on my bathroom counter. I have it placed in a spot so it is one of the first things I notice when I get up and one of the last things I see before I go to bed.

Amid the swirls and curls drawn on the box are two words, “Kindness Matters.” When I step up to the sink and read that message, it is a reminder to keep my priorities straight.

That can be challenging in the world we live in. It feels especially challenging during the current presidential election when unkindness seems to be taking root and growing on both sides of the campaign.

Still, interesting things, reminders, come along if we do our best to remember that kindness matters. And just when I needed one of those reminders, I got it in the form of a telephone conversation with my neighbor.

She called to see if our mail had come yet because she was expecting an important package. I wasn’t at home when she called and the message she left simply asked me to return the call.

By the time I phoned her, she already had the answer to her question because the package was in her box. So instead of talking about mail delivery, she shared a story with me.

Her husband has health issues and often needs her help. That means she plans her trips to town carefully. She needs to get there, get her purchases and get home within a certain time frame.

A day or so ago, she made one of those trips to town, bought what she had on her list, put her bags in the car and was ready to head home. Unfortunately, her car did not cooperate. When, after several tries, it refused to crank, she started to panic a bit knowing she needed to get home.

“I didn’t know what I was going to do,” she said. “For a minute, I just sat there.”

She told me, laughing, that she even started worrying about the ice cream she bought for her husband melting while she was trying to figure out what to do. This is when kindness showed up.

A young man parked a few spaces away noticed she was having trouble with her car. He immediately came over and tried to help. The car, however, was not about to crank. That is when he offered to give her a lift.

“I told him I lived five or six miles away and it would take him a while,” my neighbor said. “He told me that was fine; he had plenty of time.”

Together they moved the grocery bags from her car to his vehicle and drove to her house. When they arrived, she offered to pay him for his trouble, but he refused.

“He was like an angel,” she said. “He came from nowhere, helped me and then he was gone.”

In the excitement, she said she didn’t think to get his name.

“He was from Opp,” she said. “I wish I knew his name because it was like a miracle happened. I can‘t believe someone showed up like that and helped me that way.”

As I hung up the phone, I was smiling, feeling a little bit better about life because of the kindness of one young man who saw another’s need and stepped in with no thought of anything other than helping.

“Yes,” I thought, “sometimes a miracle shows up exactly when we need one.”

For example, a miracle phone conversation with a neighbor that reminded me how much kindness matters and that we have the ability to practice it no matter what’s going on. We simply have to be open to looking beyond the things that separate us into different groups, beliefs, political parties etc. and be willing to be angels and miracles.

And maybe, just maybe, acts of kindness, large and small, are the way we make this big world a better place for everyone.

 

Nancy Blackmon is a former newspaper editor and a yoga teacher.