A Kindness from a Stranger
You never really know who will show up in an ordinary moment and keep your day from going completely off the rails.
It may be the customer at Aldi’s who frees a shopping cart from its quarter-based prison,
the driver at an intersection who waves you through as they have briefly been appointed traffic angel,
or the stranger at the beach who saves your umbrella from becoming the fastest thing on the shoreline.
Most of the time, you do not even know their names.
They are like tiny guest stars in the sitcom of your life, appearing just long enough to save the scene and then disappearing before the credits.
Without them, the world would feel a little harsher and far less merciful.
I felt that kindness myself the other day at the end of a hike, when a faint headache started tapping at my temples like a landlord asking where the rent was. A man I had just met offered me an unopened bottle of water from his pack, and in that moment, he seemed less like a fellow hiker and more like a desert mirage with good planning skills. I have not hiked like that in two years, but you can be sure I will carry extra water next time, because apparently, I enjoy learning important lessons the hard way.
Another time, I was carrying my beach umbrella over one shoulder and my bag on the other, feeling strong and wonderfully free of pain for the first time in years. Hip surgery was behind me, and all I had to do was walk in a straight line like an adult, which, in hindsight, may have been asking a lot.
It would have been simple if I had remembered that my eyes and my feet are supposed to be on the same team. Instead, I turned to look behind me and went down so fast it felt as if the earth had been waiting all morning for its chance. One moment I was upright and victorious; the next I was introducing myself to the pavement. Thankfully, instinct arrived before panic, and I managed to protect my new hip, which at that point felt like the most expensive member of the family.
I scraped my elbow and twisted my foot, but escaped with no serious injury, which felt like a very generous final score. The strangers near the outdoor shower kept moving. Still, my sister and brother-in-law, coming up behind me, lifted me and took the weight I had been carrying, proving that family will absolutely help you, especially when you have already provided the day’s entertainment.
Family, after all, can be its own kind of rescue, steady as a railing and only slightly more likely to laugh once they know you are fine.
