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MistressDarkArt -> RE: Random Acts of Kindness (7/2/2011 9:29:23 PM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: KMsAngel
once one has been the recipient of a random act of kindness, do you actively do the same from then on? if not in money then in other acts that are often just as meaningful?
My neighbors across the street automatically take in my trash and recycling containers every week when they do their own. While they know it isn't necessary, they just like to do it. They are constantly looking out for me without getting in my business, an art unto itself.
A few years ago my mom w/Alzheimer's slipped into a coma right after Xmas. She'd suffered so long with the disease none of my family was sure if 'this was it'. On New Year's eve, my brother told me I'd better hurry if I wanted to see her before she passed. I was a mess, too distraught to drive the distance and there was one of the worst storms to hit the Central Ca. Coast on the way. I didn't know how I would get to her in time. A contra-dance friend said he would drive me the 7 hours to northern Ca. and stay as long as needed, then drive me home. I said, "Ramzi, you've never seen me like this before. I do not ever remember feeling this devastated, and I'm mortified and embarrassed that I cannot make the simplest decision, right down to what shoes to pack. May I ask that for the length of this trip you decide where and when we stop for gas and food, which restaurant, order me something you know I like, and not ask me to navigate or take responsibility for anything for the next 36 hours or so? All I want to do is curl up in a ball in the passenger's seat and not have to talk, hear music in the car or make decisions. I need as much quiet as possible." And that's exactly what he did, and I didn't have to worry about a thing. He drove fast into the teeth of the storm on New Year's day, and I got to sit with her for a few hours and (try with tears splashing down onto her face) to sing her the song I wrote in my head on the way up to wish her a good goodbye. Although tired from the drive, he sat patiently with my family through the hours, calmly supporting them too. She died that night.
When I got home after her passing I could not believe what I saw. The day we were driving north in the storm, a huge cypress in my front yard had been split apart by the winds and fallen on my car. My neighbor across the street and the one next to me who I barely knew had taken chain saws and cleared the devastation in the driveway, stacking everything neatly on the shoulder of the street so it would be safely out of the way.
These are just two examples. I've been the recipient of a tremendous amount of kindness. It sounds a bit cliche, but yes, I try to 'pay it forward.'
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