A Simple Act of Kindness

An event in The Salt Path reminded me about kindness

On a whim at the end of a story on Raynor Winn’s The Salt Path I invited anyone if they wanted to go on a journey reading, writing, and interacting about the book and ten writers have joined me on this amazing journey.

I’ve been blown away by the way each writer has personally related to the events in the book that led Raynor and Moth, a couple in their 50s, to hike on the South West Coast Path in the UK to deal with two tragic losses.

One was losing their home which doubled as their source of income as a B & B Inn, and the other was Moth being diagnosed with a terminal brain illness.

I wrote my first story, “7 Things Anyone Dealing with a Loss Needs To Do,” by focusing on Raynor’s reaction to the traumatic losses in their life. But I didn’t include any personal thoughts or experiences related to the the story.

So I’ve been itching to write another story and weave in personal experiences related to what Raynor and Moth go through during their 630-mile hike — and they’re as prepared as you or I would be to hike the trail on a whim.

A random act of kindness

The part of the story that caught my attention yesterday was a random act of kindness by a pink-haired waitress in a restaurant. You see, Raynor and Moth had run out of food and came off the trail in need of getting some food.

But the waitress tells them the restaurant just closed five minutes ago, and you know how it goes, she isn’t allowed to sell anything else.

“Couldn’t we just buy two of those pastries?”

“We’re walking the coastal path and we’ve run out of food…”

The waitress sticks to the rules but agrees to bring a pot of water for tea as Raynor eyes some left behind plates of food at a table.

She looks at the untouched salad on the table. It seemed to be calling to her, and she gathers up her courage to move two plates over to her table.

Mind you, this is something she never had done before in her life. She owned a home and ran a quaint B & B for the guests for years. She was used to being the person serving the food and not someone longing to eat some leftovers.

But right as Raynor was having this thought the young waitress returned.

“Just got to wait until the boss goes, then you can have some pasties.”

“I’m supposed to throw them away if they’re not sold, but that’s such a waste, you might as well have them.”

“I can’t let you go without taking some food. It’d be like letting my gran go to starve under a hedge. It wouldn’t be right.”

Ah, kindness

And that’s when I stopped to think of a time when I received an act of kindness — defined by Webster as an act of friendliness showing generosity and consideration — and for about five minutes I couldn’t remember one.

Then an act of kindness came to my mind when I had a similar, but less urgent need than Raynor and Winn. My car engine blew up, and my car had to be salvaged. I started to ride a bike to work and enjoyed being out in nature.

I loved feeling the wind on my face. It was kinda like being on a hiking trail.

One time I was pulled over by the police a block in front of the school where I teach and got patted down in front of my students as they gasped. The cop said white guys sell drugs on bikes in this city and I fit this demographic.

It was the first time I’d ever been racially profiled as a white person, but I digress … this story is about a random act of kindness bestowed upon me.

An act of kindness

My wife and I were down to one car, and this car was not driving well. It was so bad we took a long route to church just to avoid driving up a hill.

What are we going to do?

This car isn’t going to last long.

Those were my wife’s words as our car — on which we had just paid $552 in repairs — barely chugged up a sloping hill that other cars were taking with ease. I think some smog was coming out of the tailpipe.

The irony is, my mom planned to buy a new car and offered to give us her old car instead of trading it in. But my wife didn’t want to accept the car … and I knew enough not to say anything or it would just make the situation worse.

But if it’s hard for you to accept kindness let me tell you a story. It’s the story I told my wife in our car that morning as our car barely made it up the hill.

A story on accepting kindness

You’ve probably heard it. A man is stranded on his roof during a flood. He prays to God to be rescued. A man in a rowboat comes. Then a motorboat and a helicopter. Each time the man rejects their offers of help because he says God will save him.

Finally, the man drowns and goes to heaven. He asks God, “I had faith in you, but you didn’t save me. I don’t understand why!”

God says, “I sent a rowboat, motorboat, and helicopter to rescue you …. what more did you expect?”

When I got done telling the story, my wife told me God spoke to her a few days earlier about accepting the car and my mom’s kindness.

And it met a need in our life because her car engine failed a week later.

So the next time you see someone in need like the waitress saw Raynor and Moth I want to remind you that an act of kindness will not go unappreciated.

I know because I’m still driving the car my mom gave us out of her kindness.

Thanks for reading my story.

Tagging the Salt Path writers: Evon, Janice Macdonald, Klara Jane Holloway, Michael L Butler, C.A. Jaymes, Angie Mangino, Jane Kelley, The Sober Vegan Yogi, Mary DeVries, Belcairn, and Audrey Wells.

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