A person I have never met before did a very selfless and generous act for me a few days ago.

It was completely unexpected.

Even after understanding his reasoning, I am still surprised.

This guy likely gave up a good financial benefit for himself, so that a stranger could have a shot.

Have you ever been pleasantly surprised by the kindness of strangers?

Have you ever surprised a stranger with a random act of kindness?

It reminds me of two incidents in my past.

Random Act of Kindness #1: FLOWERS.

It was a sunny day, a few years ago.

I was leaving the grocery store with a bouquet of flowers for my wife.

As I waited to cross the parking lot, an elderly lady drove by slowly.

She leaned toward her passenger window, mischievously, and said: “Oh, flowers for me? You shouldn’t have!”

I laughed. She was delightful.

So I stepped forward and placed the flowers onto her passenger seat.

(The car was moving slowly – I’m not crazy! LOL!)

Her face fell.

The sunny mischievous look, the sparkle in her eyes, all went away.

She looked in shock. And her eyes teared up.

“No, I can’t take these…” as she started to return them.

I pushed them gently back into her car.
“Anyone with a smile like that deserves flowers”, I said.

Now it looked like she was going to start bawling.

And I didn’t think people would believe me if I insisted that I hadn’t tried to steal her groceries or something! LOL!

So I backed away from the car.

After a few moments, she pulled herself together, and mouthed “God bless you”.

Sniffling.

I watched her drive away, as her red eyes met mine in the rearview mirror.

Random Act of Kindness #2: Stop and Chat.

If you’ve never seen the TV show “Curb Your Enthusiasm”, check out this clip.

It stars Larry David, the eccentric but genius writer that wrote all the Seinfeld episodes.

Anyway – Larry David is very much opposed to the “Stop and Chat”.

(Love that show – it is HI-LA-RI-OUS!)

But back to my Stop & Chat  incident.

This must have happened 10 years ago.

I was working for Procter & Gamble in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Every day, I had a 5-minute walk from the parking structure to my office building.

And every day, there was a homeless man who sat on the side of the walkway.  With a change cup out.

I’d given him money a few times…

Made small talk…

But on this particular day, completely randomly, I felt like doing a “stop and chat”.

(The weird thing is – I have my socially awkward moments, where I’m just like Larry David!  But I digress…)

So I stopped and talked with the guy.  And he told me his story.

He’d been an able-bodied, hardworking guy, in construction.

Married, had a home, everything was good.

An injury on the construction site led to him not being able to do the physical labor required for the job.

Things quickly spiraled downhill.

He couldn’t keep up with medical bills.

His wife left him.

He lost his home.

etc. etc.

At this point, I was sitting next to the homeless guy.

On the sidewalk.

In my fancy office attire.
(I’d even ironed my pants that morning.  Which isn’t a given.)

One of my co-workers happened to walk by as I was sitting on the side of this bridge walkway with a homeless guy.

And he gave me the most confused and perplexed look.

But he never mentioned the incident afterward.  I guess it was kind of awkward.

The homeless guy (I shame-facedly admit that I don’t remember his name now…) talked for over 30 minutes.

Like he hadn’t had anyone show an interest in him, in a long time.

Larry David would have been horrified.
.

Why Share my Random Acts of Kindness?  The Butterfly Effect.

I hesitated to share the two stories in which I performed the act of kindness.

Hopefully you realize that my intent isn’t to pat myself on the back.

But instead to encourage you that regular folk, like me, can sometimes do a small act that makes a big difference in someone’s life.

I read recently that Courage is Contagious.

And maybe, just maybe, so are Random Acts of Kindness.

.

I was the recipient of a Random Act of Kindness this week.

And I’m excitedly thinking about how I’m going to pay it forward.

But in the meantime, maybe the 3 stories above will inspire you

To do your own Random Act of Kindness today.

Here’s to Random Acts of Kindness.

And here’s an 8-minute trailer for the PAY IT FORWARD movie.

What’s been your experience with Random Acts of Kindness?