This weekend I went to The Southern Women’s Show down the road in Raleigh. My daughter was supposed to come with me but had to go out of town, so I went by myself. The Groupon I had gotten was a two for one deal and as I was leaving the show, I found that extra ticket burning a hole in my pocket.
Almost immediately I knew I had to give it away. The Universe was very firm about this. I began to ask every one I passed if they needed a ticket. I probably asked twenty women. Everyone must have found the same Groupon deal I had, because they all were marching up to to the entrance — tickets well in hand. So I wandered out to the parking lot towards my car.
There was no one else in sight and I wondered why I had gotten such a strong sense from The Universe about giving this ticket away. She had been adamant. I have learned not to question those kinds of messages.
But then I saw the woman. As I walked up the row of cars towards where mine was parked, she sat off to the side in the shade on her phone. You could nearly see the cosmic arrow over her head clearly pointing — “THIS ONE”. So I walked up to her and asked if she was going to The Woman’s Show. She replied she was and was currently on Google attempting to figure out which building/direction she needed to head in. I happily gave her directions. Then asked if she had a ticket. When she said no — I already had the ticket in my hand and simply placed it in hers. She was flabbergasted.
I explained I had an extra and was happy to have someone use it as I had already been. She thanked me profusely and then — because The Universe is cool like that — took her turn to flabbergast me, by promising to “pay this forward”.
We parted as she headed — in the right direction — to the show. As soon as she turned, I skipped the rest of the way to my car. Because doing good felt so damn good.
AND — Bonus — to know my stranger is going to also do something nice BECAUSE I was nice to her. I had started a chain reaction of kindness. How fucking cool is that? In this world where everyone is taking sides and implementing ‘Us vs Them’ protocols — I tossed a stone in a pond — and made ripples of happiness.
The entire interaction cost me nothing. It was a ticket I had gotten free. I already knew where to go. Offering my unused ticket and directions to a stranger — Cost. Me. Nothing. But the reward I got from doing some thing nice for another soul left me with warm fuzzies that may very carry me through all of next week
In looking for an awesome kindness quote to end this post I found one that is credited to the infamous author, Anonymous. Anonymous writes, “A simple act of kindness can make a tremendous impact on a person’s life”.
Anonymous failed to clarify that the person whose life is impacted is the person who DOES the act of kindness.
Namaste.
