Kindness

 Every day, most of us go about our business... running errands, going to work or at least booting up the computer and backdrop for for a proper video conference, balancing the checkbook, washing salad greens for dinner...never thinking you won't do the same thing tomorrow...and the day after. Normal things that life requires. That's on the straight road. The life road that doesn't have the bumps and pot holes.

The roads that are more challenging can even become tenuous switchbacks or actual turning points. Sometimes welcome adventures. Others you wish for mundane.

April fifteenth was our turning point. It was a major, unexpected, unwanted life jolt that sent our sense of normal way off track. The tracks weren't even in view anymore.

But on this new path, there also have been many kindnesses. Unexpected. Unsolicited. Kindness given for kindness sake. The efforts of handwritten cards and messages. Petitioning prayer warriors. Lunches and snack bags. Parking attendance that gave me my money back with a "have a nice day". A car service that fixed my wacky windshield wiper as soon as I pulled in... No charge. The storage facility manager who kept my old rate when they found out Jim had been hurt. Hearing a sincere... How are you? What can I do? The list goes on. I don't take these gifts of kindness for granted. Just the opposite. They touch my heart and lighten the weight we carry right now, and they won't be forgotten.

If you watch the news and listen to talking heads whose intent is to outrage, you might forget that kindness exists... And even think good people are extinct. Truly. Good people are not extinct. One of them is injured and in rehab, but he is still good and still kind. And, many of them have extended hands towards us. Thank each and every one of you... many of whom we do not know personally...for your kindness.