Today, like ever Sunday,is my food prep day! I gotta eat! In order to keep myself from blowing up I have to have food prepared during the week for me to eat so it takes all the guess work out of trying to figure out what to eat thats healthy. One of my favorites places to go to shop is Aldi. If you've never been you need to go at least once. The cost of the food there is very reasonable, and their bottled water is very cheap. This store is different in the fact that when you go to get a shopping cart you have to put a quarter in it to get the cart free to use. You get the quarter back when you return the cart to the place where you got it from. Normally, when I leave out from that store I try not to get the quarter back and just hand off my cart to a person that is on their way inside. I always say to the person I give the cart to "This is a gift from me to you." I always get a big ol smile and a thank you. Well today something different happened. I came out with my cart and I saw an elderly lady coming up with her 25 cents. I stopped her and told her that she could have my cart. She tried to give me her quarter but I refused and told her it was a gift from me to her. The lady asked me why I was being so nice and I told her I was always this nice. She said she needed someone to be nice to her today and starting crying a little outside the store. I was so confused but I wanted the lady to stop crying because people were looking at me like I did something to the lady. So, me being the silly person I am, I told her I really wanted to be nice to her. I pulled out one of the bananas I had bought and said here is a gun for you to have. Haha! She smiled through the tears and laughed a little. I asked her why she was so sad. She told me that she is a mother of two adult children. One was living in Texas and the other was living in California. They were supposed to come and spend the weekend with her but her daughter has a sick child and couldn't come and her son's job had some sort of emergency so he couldn't come either. I said they will just come next weekend then. She said that today was the anniversary of her husband's death. He passed last year on today. I was speechless. I told her I was so sorry. She said it has been rough on her all day and that me being nice to her really just made her lose it. She asked my named and I said it's Emmanuel. Her eyes filled with tears again and she said that that was her late husbands name also. I told her to hold a second. I went and put my groceries in the car and told her I would go with her in the store to help her shop. I had stuff I needed to get done, but I felt like that I bumped into this lady for a reason...
The point of me telling you this story is to hopefully show that even the smallest random act of kindness can mean the world to someone. I gave this lady a shopping cart and ended up feeling just as good or better than when I work out. I look at the news lately and see all this killing and people being angry at each and it's like we all have turned into wild animals. We've forgotten how to show empathy and love one another. We are all human beings, even though we've forgotten how to be human. I challenge everyone who reads this to do some small random act of kindness for your fellow man. I don't care if it is just as simple as holding a door open for someone when you go in a store to shop. You never know whose life you can affect in a positive way. I helped this lady to the car with her stuff and she gave me a big hug. We will probably never see each other again, but doing something nice for this lady made me feel as good as I figure I made her feel. The rewards of 25 cents can be awesome. Until next time people.. Rest in peace Mr. Emanuel...
A Penny For Your Thoughts
ReplyDeleteThis is a great post, of a great act by a great person. Random acts of kindness often leads to positive feelings for all people involved. It is a good thing that you are committed to doing your food preparation on Sundays! Your perseverance in meal preparation has allowed room in your heart to experience compassion and mercy.
First, COMPASSION – Your compassion for the lady who experienced grief from her husband’s death while she endured suffering from long distance family relationships is invigorating. Could this compassion help the lady feel her husband’s presence once again? Yes! Could shopping with the lady help her enjoy the moments of bonding that she long for when shopping alone. Yes! It is my hope that you receive the same type of compassion that you gave to the lady, but double the portion for your thoughtfulness and willingness to see this situation to a happy ending.
Secondly, MERCY – Obviously, the lady’s need for someone to be nice to her was a call for mercy. Mercy to stop things from spiraling downward in her thoughts and within her environment. Mercy to turn her sad tears to tears of joy and laughter. I am not sure that guns are made in the bright and beautiful color of bananas; however, the soft and tender yellow banana produced the thought of warmth and connections with good times, good people and good places for the lady. Oh, I almost forgot – A good food as well! Good Choices Emmanuel!