I met a stranger yesterday, who made hot tea with honey and lemon for me…because I have a cold.  She’s not a stranger now.  She’s special to me, for that simple act of hospitality, whether or not I see her again…but I hope I do.

How many times do we experience unwarranted kindness like that?  Here I was, trying to talk about listing her home, struggling with the remnants of this aggravating cold, and she just got up and made a cup of hot tea for me.  And when she thought it was getting too cool, she offered to heat it for me.  I’m amazed.  And I shouldn’t be!  These are the things we should do for one another; yet we just don’t anymore…or rarely.

I’m not one of the entitlement generation.  I have worked hard for everything I’ve had, my whole life.  So things like this MEAN something to me, these little acts of goodness.  And the odd thing is, when you have so little of that kind of generosity of spirit in your life, these acts of benevolence are magnified.  This woman wasn’t the least bit inconvenienced by my discomfort nor her act of service to me.  It came naturally to her to be kind; I could tell. 

While our world is changing, moving ever faster and people are becoming less and less engaged, some of us still appreciate grace and know it when we see it.  I did not expect her act of kindness and certainly did not feel entitled to it.  Yet…this one simple act changed my life.  Think about that.  It’s not a grand change, mind you, but it changed my life because it reminded me that kindness is still out there, whether or not I expect it and whether or not I’ve felt it recently. 

The lesson is this: Goodness makes a difference.  Kindness matters.   It changes lives…