Friday, January 25, 2019

Kindness in the Trump Era

I have a walking habit. I love to walk and purposely chose my  new Florida  home in an area that would allow me to walk easily.  I am lucky to have  three different walking partners. One of them is my friend Lavilla and we walk at sun up three days a week. We regularly admire the beautiful Florida sunrises , the flowering trees, the herons and other big birds. We also talk about the miserable state of politics and how mean people can be to each other. As we walked today, I turned my admiration to Lavilla. 

Palm Tree
She told me that she had been worried about one of the residents in our areas. This older  man walks daily with two small white dogs on a  long  tattered rope leash. He  usually  responds to hellos from passing walkers wtih a gruff, hey and never stops to chat.  Lavilla had noticed that he had not been walking for a few days so she took the moment of concern and did something about it.

She walked up to the front door of the man that had never expressed any kindness  to her in order to check on him. He answered the door and she asked how he was. He  smiled widely and told her that he was so touched by her concern that she was invited to come in and sit down. They spoke for  a few minutes and  then  she left. 

She felt so good about taking this small step. I continue to  wonder what hundreds of small steps might look like in this world......