A thought crossed my mind earlier this month.
Be the kind of person that when someone shares,
“To the person who (insert kind thing), thank you so much,”
you realize they may actually be talking about you.
An acquaintance of mine lost his wallet this month, and unfortunately it became evident that the person who found it stole from him rather than return it to the building near where it was found. It caused a great deal of headache for my acquaintance in several ways.
Yet I’ve also seen posts where people thank someone for doing a kind thing, like looking for the owner of a wallet or apologizing for a mistake they made while driving.
These things remind me that we all can decide how we want to show up in this world. We can take the extra moment to be considerate. We can make someone’s day.
It’s been refreshing that during the weeks of the World Cup and leading up to America’s 250th birthday, there’s been a wave of visitors expressing appreciation for and enjoyment of our country. We’ve become far too rude and cynical of late, and it’s been refreshing to see people being treated kindly.
What would it be like if we all made a habit of doing the right thing, the kind thing, the courteous thing, and when we see someone post about an unexpected kindness, we realize that we recently did something like that for someone?
It’s not about seeking recognition so much as making kindness and courtesy such a part of how we show up that it’s second nature.
That’s the kind of society I want to live in.