Okay ... this isn't a huge, earth-shattering type of kindness, but to me sometimes those small, everyday kindnesses are the ones that stick with us - maybe because they're so easy to accomplish by the average person.  This morning, our building managers stood in the lobby of our downtown office building and handed out red and pink long-stemmed roses for Valentine's Day.  What a beautiful and thoughtful way to start a day!  The rose handed to me was a lovely, dark, bubblegum pink and waved to me on my desk throughout my very busy and stressful hours.  Each time I looked at it or smelled its soft fragrance, I was delivered back to the smile and warm "Hello!" and "Happy Valentine's!" that accompanied its delivery upon my arrival at work.   It is a kindness that will be remembered all weekend long as well, since I took the rose home with me.  I started thinking about all the people who received those Valentine's roses this morning.  I thought of how many different ways their days might have been kindly and gently altered.  I imagined that some of the recipients might have had a rough morning even before they left home, or a stressful drive in through morning traffic, or had been feeling ill from the common winter ailments, or felt sadness at being alone, or had arrived in our building with the hopes of a new job - yet they received a small, but precious gift.   The gift of one rose and the kindness that went with it most certainly lifted my spirits, I can imagine it did the same for others. 

Consideration of others is a noble and universally-recognizable trait, usually most often seen and/or granted when we are comfortable and secure in our surroundings, with our own needs met.  At present, I am aware of the kind consideration of a woman who has traveled far outside of her comfort zone to a tiny foreign land, thousands of miles from her home, family and friends, for the sole purpose of sharing programs geared to protect children and adults from all forms of abuse.  She is traveling alone, six months post-surgery, out of shape, at age 67, at her own expense, simply because she believes anyone can make a difference in this world.  She is making a conscious choice to be temporarily uncomfortable in order to advocate for those who cannot advocate for themselves - in a society that argues, "Well, this is our culture," as if that would ever be a valid defense for the abuse of any human being, let alone a child.   While I know there are many other world citizens who actively choose to go where they are needed - and I applaud that noble consideration -  I happen to know this particular woman.  She is my mother. 

I experienced, this very morning, unfortunate thoughts of impatience as I watched from 20 cars back as a large semi truck cut in front of three lanes of traffic immediately before a busy intersection.  I say "unfortunate," because I had already been thinking of the purpose of this site immediately prior to those negative and impatient thoughts.   Thankfully, not long after the truck got through the traffic (and I got through the intersection), I realized that I had been looking at it from the very perspective I was trying to avoid with this website.   Shame on me!  So, I changed perspectives and lo and behold, I was able to see and appreciate the patience of those three drivers who courteously stopped and provided a gap for the driver of this huge truck, who without this kindness, would have had to wait for many more minutes than I had to.   I'm usually a polite driver as well, but sometimes when I get in a hurry, my manners slink into hiding.  This was a gentle reminder that kindness is all around us, even when we're not the ones exhibiting it.  God bless those patient drivers this morning. 

I'm not sure why I was surprised by my husband's recent thoughtfulness of me ... after all, I married him because of his sensitive and loving nature ... but recently he caught me off guard by surprising me on my birthday.  It's not so much the surprise cakes or the surprise guests that came to celebrate with me, it's the fact that HE thought of it, HE planned it, HE spent the energy on me when I was actually feeling a bit "let down" on my birthday due to not hearing from important people in my life and honestly thinking that even my husband didn't bother with anything more than taking me to dinner and a movie the night before.   It's funny how perspectives change when you become aware that the person you love more than any other HAS been thinking of doing something especially for you for weeks.  Like I said before, I already know of his sensitivity and loving heart, so I shouldn't have been all that blindsided by his efforts, but I honestly was and fell in love with him all over again.