Life | It Happened to Me | Kindness
How Simple Random Acts of Kindness Made All The Difference To My Day
Making it an extraordinary day of travel, after all
When you set out on a journey, you never know what will happen.
Sometimes it is the simple things that count.
I’m on my journey to New Zealand, for reasons not to do with pleasure, I tell my story about it .
and a little bit more here.
Anxiety due to the reasons for my travel seems to have reached its highest level. I’ve never suffered from anxiety so this is a new one for me. I do all I can to keep my emotions in check.
My bag is heavier than I would like it to be, I don’t know what the heck I’ve put into it. My checklist says I need it all, next time I will have to have to reduce this.
The first leg of my travel involves a rail journey to get to London Heathrow, I live up north in the UK.
At the Train Station
Just as I am boarding, a woman stops me and asks if I’m from Thailand cos I have that visual look. The reason she asks this is because that’s where she’s from. She is feeling overwhelmed trying to find the right train to get on. In the language confusion, she shows me her ticket but it’s not printed in full and I am not able to make sense of it. She calls a friend and we are all speaking on video to someone I do not know, thank goodness for technology, even if it all seems bizarre.
This stranger on the screen tells me which train her friend needs to get, which is the same as mine but she needs to alight earlier than its destination, to get her connecting train. This is where the traveller’s confusion came about. As the destination of the train did not match hers, she didn’t know if it would stop there. Thank goodness I did.
I’m able to reassure her that it is the right train and I will let her know when she needs to get off. By now she is in floods of tears and people are starting to look. I wonder if they think I have made her cry yet no one has come to help.
It can be confusing to be in a foreign country where the instructions and destinations seem to make no sense. I know I have been there, that’s why I took a moment to stop and help.
On Board the Train
Upon finding my seat, someone is already sitting there. A couple who wish to sit together. They point out one of their single-booked seats and ask if we can swap. In the confusion, I get confused and tell them I don’t think I can sit in that seat as I get motion sick when backward facing. But not wanting to split them up, I sit in the single-seat identified anyway. My halo of random kindness slipped ever so slightly. As the train started to move, I realise I am in fact, in the forward-facing seat and my booked one isn’t.
In essence, they did me a random kindness without intending it, I just did not know it. I must have looked like a right idiot. They smile at me sweetly and knowingly. Thank goodness I will never meet them again.
It seems the universe rewards acts of kindness in small ways.
The woman got off the train at the right stop. Hopefully, she found someone to help her get the next connection.
I travelled forward-facing, thank goodness.
What’s there not to like about travel so far?
Moments of kindness in the travel
I lugged my heavy suitcase down the platform, wondering how I was going to negotiate the stairs before me.
When a person came up and asked if they could help me by carrying it down the stairs for me. I could have hugged them but that would have been weird. I thanked him profusely instead.
He had no idea how his random act of kindness sent goosebumps all over and made my heart feel all tingly and warm inside.
There is kindness around us, after all.
The Point of this Random Story
Next time, you are out and about, just flow with what the universe puts before you and follow the cues. You never know what a difference you make to another person, no matter how small that random act you do.
Have you experienced a simple random act of kindness like this that made your day, as it did mine?
Enjoyed reading, please support me directly with your Medium subscription. It helps a lot!
Get my articles by subscribing here.
If you wish to buy, I like coffee!
