Random Acts of Kindness

                Do you ever wonder if the weather affects the moods and events of a day?  We watched a thunderstorm east of us rumbling away on a Thursday and well, it just seemed that Friday was a shambles. With the screams and wailing of sirens throughout the day hinting at what might happen, we should have been warned but even as we passed by an accident on the way to the bank at noon we thought nothing about the day.  When I returned to our clinic, the crisis worker had four more calls in addition to the three in the morning.  The ambulances came twice to the clinic.  They came for the crisis in the office and for a non-responsive woman in a car outside our door.  Other than writing out an incident report none of these events were personal except that I had called 911.

    

            It was not until nearly going home that the day got up close, painful and personal.  A young co-worker received the expected call from her doctor regarding her cancer. She needed to have another surgery. She cried, I cried.  After she left, we, her co-workers sat or stood in the quiet office feeling glum. 

                Glum goes a long way.  It hangs in the heart, the mind and the cells of your soul until your breath stops.   I shared this information about yet another surgery while in tears with my husband as we sat in our car preparing to drive home, he was silent and placed his hand on my leg letting me know that he was there and shared my grief. 

                It is surprising how quickly my tears dried and my thoughts traveled to other things as we drove home but I remained glum. I made my tea, sat down to watch more glum things on the television nightly news until I saw my husband coming out of the bathroom with a pan of water.  He motioned me to the recliner as he walked across the room. After setting the pan with suds down on the floor, he gently removed my shoes and socks placing both of my feet in the comforting warm water.  He took each foot cradling it in his hands, placing the foot to soak in the basin. A gentle massage followed for each of my feet while in the warm water.  Without saying a word, he returned to the bathroom where I could hear water running and stopping.  My eyes opened at his footsteps as he returned to me.  Carefully, he removed a foot and rinsed it off carefully with a washrag until he was satisfied.  Placing my foot on the towel next to the pan of water, he turned a part of the towel to cover my foot.  He returned to the bathroom where I heard the water running, being turned off. The second foot was rinsed off and placed by the other.

                With this simple random act of kindness, my heart’s pain lifted as my mind filled up with the joy and love of this simple act.  When I shared this story with a friend the next day at the Farmers’ Market, she remarked that “now I have a nice memory.”  

                I have held onto this memory since then, letting it take the place of the other thoughts of my little friend and what she has to face.  Sometimes, good memories are all we have to hang on to.