There is something truly remarkable that comes over you when you are the recipient of a random act of kindness. All pretenses melt away from within your psyche and a flood of gratitude and love flows down through your veins.
I was the lucky recipient of such an act last week while still in full recovery mode from my recent knee-replacement surgery. Let me tell you this fun and heartwarming story.
I have a dear friend whose primary residence is in Maryland where I used to reside. She and her “rock star” husband also own a Florida residence that is about an hour and half from me. This delightful friend, whom I will call Beauty for the purpose of this story, has kept in constant contact with me during my ordeal from surgery day throughout my recovery. True to her nature, her calls & texts always uplifted me even on the darkest days. Last Thursday, she sent a text – “Hello my beautiful friend – where will you be tomorrow around 10:30 am?” ‘Where will I be,’ I thought, ‘well, right here in my chair!’ Beauty responded, “I am going to be driving and I thought I would call you and we could chat and catch up and share some giggles – me captive audience, you captive audience!” Well now, that was an invitation I met with a resounding “Yes!”
The next morning, I rose at dawn as is my custom, hobbled to the kitchen and brewed a cup of coffee and settled myself until the day met the ten o’clock hour. Picture this – I am in my jammies, hair askew from a night of tossing and turning, looking somewhat like a waif with the exception that I was wearing a beautiful Johnny Was silk kimono over top of my mismatched pajamas. (Now let me digress for a minute, Sister Golden Hair has instilled in me to never save the good stuff – “Eat the lobster, use the silk sheets, drink the vintage champagne you were gifted – do not wait for an occasion – today is an occasion.” So, every day during my recovery, I reached for the designer silk frock as a cover up.)
Sure enough, at exactly 10:29 am my phone rang indicating an incoming call from Beauty. I scrambled to answer it, “Hi Beauty! I’ve been waiting for your call!”, to which she responded, “Did you get a new car?” “Well, yes I did.”, to which she responded, “..and is it Blue?” Ok, now this is weird because Beauty is a most direct type person. At that moment the hounds started barking out of control, and the Professor went to the front door to see what the ruckus was all about”. As I am still hanging on the phone, Beauty comes sweeping into the room with arms laden with the most stunning sunset roses and a loaf of still warm almond cake that she made that very morning! To say I was speechless, is an understatement.
We spent the next three hours in perfect unison with a tone of harmony that only comes with a friend who prescribes to the tenet ‘Come As You Are’. There was no regard for my disheveled appearance nor my household in disarray. We just communed. And, in those hours, I felt love wash over me like a warm blanket and lift my spirits to the level of wanting to get to the finish line and put all the agony of recovery behind me once and for all. It was the push I needed.
The moral of this story is that Beauty, who was down in Florida for a quick turn-around visit, decided to extend that brief timeframe so she could drive down to deliver joy to an old friend. It was random. It was an extraordinary act of kindness, and it had a miraculous result.
So, folks, maybe look for opportunities to do something random for a friend, even a stranger this week. Keeping our eyes open for a chance to better our humanity by bettering someone else’s world is an expression of absolute true love. Go on out there and make someone’s day brighter!
“If you prepare yourself . . . you will be able to grasp opportunity for broader experience when it appears.” ~ Eleanor Roosevelt