Random Acts of Kindness

Today’s Thankful Thursday post is about Random Acts of Kindness—those little things that people do, sometimes on purpose, sometimes without even thinking about them, that make someone’s life better in some way.

This morning, I was having One of Those Mornings. I remembered entirely too late that this was the morning I was supposed to bring in a small bouquet of flowers to Bryleigh’s school. It’s Teacher Appreciation Week this week, and so every day we’ve had to bring in something different for the teachers to thank them for taking care of our children day in / day out, and today’s contribution was a small bouquet of flowers, which volunteer parents will separate and count so that this afternoon they can create a beautiful (and equal) mixed bouquet for each teacher.

I went about my morning as usual, getting completely showered, dressed and ready before going to wake up Bryleigh, and my husband was following along in tandem. Before going to get Bryleigh, I put her toast in the toaster, laid out a paper towel, the butter and a knife, and popped her sippycup of milk in the microwave for one minute. That way, after getting her up, diaper changed, and dressed, I could come out and grab the milk, put the lid on it and give it to her, and the butter the toast and give that to her. This morning, when I brought her out clean and dry and dressed, I found that The Husband had pulled out the milk and put the lid on it and buttered the toast, so it was all ready to go. I know it’s a tiny gesture and only took about 30 seconds since I’d already done the prep work, but the gesture to me meant that he had recognized my day was starting hectic, and he was doing whatever he could, no matter how small, to make it easier. Sweet.

So then I finish the last of what I need to do, get Bryleigh into her coat, kiss The Husband and Pooperdogs goodbye and get out the door to head to the grocery store to grab the flowers. I find they have a sale on small bouquets, three for $12, so I get three. I’m carrying Bryleigh because we’re trying to move quickly, and I hand one of the bouquets to her to help with the weight and cumbersomeness of all I’m carrying (huge purse, bigger toddler, and several bouquets of flowers). We make our way to the checkout aisle, and I’m approaching the shortest line at the same time as a young man dressed kind of “hoodlum-ish.” He sees me struggling with everything and lets me go in front of him. Another little random act of kindness, and I’d hardly even begun my day. He probably didn’t think much of it, but to me, it meant a lot.

So I get to work and have been there for maybe an hour when I go to my favourite blog, Momastery, to see what Glennon has posted about today, and I find that she is asking everyone to do Random Acts of Kindness today in honour of a woman named Mindy who is a mother of two-year-old and who also has stage three breast cancer and is having a mastectomy. After having been the recipient of two this morning already, I have challenged myself now to do three in honour of Mindy, The Husband, and the Young Hoodlum who gave up his spot in line…