That’s what kindness can do
“You’re receiving this gift because I love the colorful fall season.
“Even though I don’t know you, I pray that you will feel blessed by the beauty that God provides each day, such as seeing a beautiful sunrise or sunset, being with someone who brings you joy or maybe it’s in the stillness and quietness of the night as you ponder the many wonders of the world. We only need to open our eyes, ears, heart and mind to see what he has for us to enjoy every day.
“Enjoy the season!”
I wish I could recall more about the woman who approached me in the Hy-Vee parking lot. I was returning my cart to the stand when she came up suddenly and handed me a small brown paper bag decorated with shiny stickers depicting those favorite colors of fall. “This is for you,” she said, smiling.
In the time that it took me to say thank you, she was gone. Back to her car, I suppose. I looked and didn’t find her.
I opened the bag when I got home. Inside were more gleaming fall “leaves,” a candy bar, small decorative pumpkin and a slip of paper bearing the above message.
In this fractious time, when friends can lose friendships over who should lead this country, it was a relief to be handed a bag of kindness. At the end of any week, as was in this case for me, we can be exhausted and overwhelmed.
That’s when kindness does its best work.
That little bag slowed me down and made me think.
I experienced a reset.
So, this is for that woman, who I truly believe was experiencing joy when she handed me that small paper bag: Thank you. May the kindness you showed me be returned to you in every way, in every day and every season.
I love fall too.
Maybe now more than ever.
That’s what kindness can do.
Jane Curtis is interim editor of the Daily Freeman-Journal. She is a 2024 Iowa Newspaper Association Master Columnist.