beautiful moment #5: kindness

in the end, only kindness matters.

Anyone who knows St. John's weather will understand what I mean when I say that the city gets four seasons in one day. The day can start off beautiful, sunny and clement and by noon in freezing cold and windy. In no time, skies are pitch dark and the rain in pouring down in sheets, flooding the lower streets beside the harbour and overflowing sewer grates. Combine that with a bus system on 'work to rule' and it can be quite the adventure getting to and from work everyday. One particular day, it was rather nippy outside so I bundled up nice and warm but I wasn't wearing the most 'rain-friendly' ensemble. As I stood at the bus stop for 20, 30 then 40 minutes, the skies began to darken and I could feel drops of rain hitting my face as I waited. All of a sudden, the skies opened up. The rain began to pour in sheets and the bus I had been waiting to take was late for over an hour; making me late for work on top of it all. Wet, soggy and discouraged, I toyed with the idea of trapsing home, changing into rain gear and wellies (umbrellas are futile here because of the wind unless you carry an inside out umbrella to collect rainwater) but I would have been all the more frustrated had my bus come when I went to change. Becoming increasingly discouraged, I braced myself for every splash from passing cars zooming through puddles and leaving me soaked on the roadside. Taking off one of my shoes, I actually dumped water from it and was able to wring water out of my touque.

Just as I was about to head home after two hours of waiting, I saw a lady approaching with a bunch of bags and a small cart stuffed with clothes, dishware and toiletries, clearly toting what few possessions she had with her. She came over to me and asked where I was going to and told me she was hoping to take the same bus. She took one look at how wet I was and asked how long I was waiting. Appalled, she reached in her bag and grabbed a poncho-like coat, threw it over my shoulders adn stood in front of me with her umbrella extended toward the street and shielding her legs from the passing traffic. Although we waited for almost 30 minutes before our bus came, she stayed there keeping the two of us dry.

I was so grateful and so inspired by her kindness and selflessness. For someone who had so little to give in terms of possesions, she was rich in love and spirit, giving me what she could to keep me dry. But more impressive than that was that the most important gift she gave me did not have a price tage or monetary value but was simply showing kindess to a complete stranger. If all people looked out for each other in this way, instead of simply throwing spare change in a cup or signing a cheque in the hopes of finding a solution, the world would be a place of peacemakers and world-changers and we would no longer have to look to find ourselves in the face of a stranger.

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“It is not the magnitude of our actions but the amount of love that is put into them that matters.” - Mother Teresa