This week has been really difficult both personally and professionally - and then, in the past 24 hours, the news has just broken my heart. In addition to the mass shootings that happened this week in Dayton, El Paso and Gilroy, there was a beautiful 4 year old girl that was killed by a stray bullet in Birmingham and a shooting at an intersection less than one mile from my house in Hoover. We are surrounded by violence and sadness and hate and fear.
It's easy to get overwhelmed when faced with all of this - or at least it is for me. I am someone that likes to take action, fix things, work towards a solution. Yet, when I see, hear and experience all of this, I feel stuck because it seems so big to try to fix.
One of my favorite prayers is the Serenity Prayer: "God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can and wisdom to know the difference." It helps me to sort through those feelings of being overwhelmed and focus on the things I can change. Usually, it breaks down pretty simply - I can't change other people, but I can change my thoughts and actions.
Recently, I saw that in action.
I was leaving an early morning meeting, and it had started to rain while we were inside. Like, torrential downpour, Noah start building your ark kind of rain. All of us were hanging by the door trying to decide how we were going to get to our cars without getting soaked (because, of course, I hadn't brought in my umbrella that I keep in my car or worn my rain boots or rain coat!). Then, through the rain, we saw a man walking towards us with a bright red umbrella with a huge smile on his face.
"Who's first?," he said when he arrived at the building door.
It took us a second to realize what he meant, so he laughed and said, "Come on now, someone has to be first. Who's up?"
One woman finally dashed underneath his umbrella. He escorted her to her car and then, hustled back to the door to collect another one of us. He did this again and again, until all ten of us were escorted to our cars.
When it was my turn, I thanked him profusely for his kind gesture, and he said, "It's the least I can do. With everything going on these days, I figure we can all use a little extra kindness." With that, he shut my car door and hustled back to the door.
That man changed my perspective. I don't even know his name. I never saw him before that morning, and yet, he went out of his way to show kindness to me and the others at that meeting. He didn't wait to be asked. He just did the next right thing he could think of to show kindness.
For the rest of that day and the days that followed, I made an effort to make eye contact with everyone I saw, to smile, to give a compliment, to hold doors or the elevator, to ask if I could do anything to help someone, to reach out to someone I knew was having a more difficult time than me.
I may not be able to fix everything, but I can definitely follow his example. I can go out of my way to show kindness, especially in spite of all of the things that make me want to retreat into my little bubble. Instead of focusing on the negative, I can seek out ways to bring something positive to each interaction I have. It changes my day when I walk through it looking for ways to connect with others and show kindness.
And now, every time that I see a red umbrella, I will think of that man and be reminded to follow his example.
Comments