Yesterday I was issuing an invoice to a customer (cashiering is just one of my myriad of roles – HR, payroll, AP, AR, GL, you name it, I’m it.) when I spied the guy he was with and his bag of stuffed toys. I suppose I gave it a cursory glance because I was curious why he had so many; I even wondered if they were for one of those UFO catcher gaming machines in Timezone. After the customer handed me his payment, his friend dug into his bag and fished out a bulldog and gave it to me. I was so surprised that I grinned like a fool for quite some time afterwards that when my colleague saw me, he thought I was weird because I was crying earlier and now I was smiling. Never underestimate the power of a simple RAK (Random Act of Kindness)! I decided to name the dog Rakkie after RAK and keep him in the office as a visual reminder when I need a happy thought.
That wasn’t the last random act of kindness I experienced this week, though. Apparently I’m on a roll. This morning I forgot to bring my umbrella and when I spotted the black clouds while in the bus, I prayed that it wouldn’t rain till after I was safely in the office, since it’s about a seven-minute walk away from the bus stop. No such luck. By the time I got off the bus, it was pouring buckets and I was stranded in the bus stop with a bunch of people, all of us huddling in the center to avoid being drenched by the splashing water from bus tires and the sheets of rain being thrown about by the winds. I sent out a text message to my colleagues to inform them that I was going to be late because of my predicament. To my surprise, one of them, Gary, volunteered to come pick me up.
So there I was, staring out into the road and trying to remember what Gary’s car looked like when a group of people with umbrellas marched past me, heading outside the bus stop. The last guy stopped and asked me if I wanted to share his umbrella. Aww, how nice of him! I thanked him but said I was waiting for someone. He smiled and caught up with his friends.
Then Gary showed up and drove us to the office. When I got to my desk, I found the hash browns that I asked him to buy when he texted this morning to ask, “Mac?” which, luckily, I correctly understood to mean, “Do you want to order something from McDonalds?” I asked him how much I owed him to which he replied, “No need.”
This morning, it was raining, all right… with kindness. 🙂
