Do you believe in magic?
I do and I’m glad that I do, as I see evidence of ‘magic’ (read ‘synchronicity by Divine intervention’) everywhere I go and look.
Today, I am completely rewriting my Reiki Empowerment Manual and it has taken up most of my day. Meanwhile, it is my intend to write more often (daily?) on this blog, so I need a quick and easy story to write for this evening. Then, ‘by pure chance’, I came across the perfect topic for an article today: random acts of kindness.
I was reminded of a situation in my business consulting years. Around the corner from the office, was the Hermes shop. Anybody who has heard of that brand, knows that whatever they have in there is both gorgeous and outrageously expensive. One Saturday, after having worked yet again an entire day overtime in the office, I decided it was time for a treat. When you work that hard, you deserve some pleasure, right?!
So, I went in the (ah-wow) Hermes store and asked the young lady behind the counter which ones were her favorite earrings. I figured this would be a good start looking for my personal extravaganza.
Well, the question changed her entire face and demeanor. She knew the answer. Walking straight to a particular drawer, she picked out a particular pair. Then she went on to tell me why these were the most gorgeous earrings in the shop. I was struck by the purity of her enthusiasm. She meant it, she absolutely adored these earrings, and could not stop talking about them.
She was right! They were beautiful, so I bought the earrings, these little over-the-top luxury indulgences. This was a huge treat!! To top it all of, I asked her to wrap them the best that she could as they were a present. She did and the present looked immaculate as she handed it to me. I smiled, said ‘Thank you’.
Then, gave it back to her.
I can’t remember the earrings, but I can remember her astonished and delighted reaction. Years later, when I had my own consulting practice, a client relayed me the story, now from the other side. When he confirmed that indeed it had been me in that Hermes store, he shared that the young girl in the shop had been his niece. I can’t recall all details, but her ‘lucky Saturday’ event seemed to have impacted her enough to decipher my name from my credit card bill and inspire her entire family with the story.
All I hoped for was her happy heart, but am thankful for her sharing. Because this is how random acts of kindness multiply.
What’s Your Story
I know this was no big deal compared to the random act of kindness that you either experienced or generously conducted in your life. Tell me your stories. What happened and how did it impact you? By sharing all our stories, we multiply generosity. Thank you for sharing, in advance.
btw
What sparked this article is
“Peace Begins with One Person” by Ivory Harlow, in This I Believe II: More Personal Philosophies of Remarkable Men and Women
This book opens with a formidable challenge: ‘What would you say in 500 words to capture a core principle that guides your life?’ Before you try to answer that question, you might want to read some of the 75 beautiful essays collected in the book.
‘Peace begins with one person’ for sure was thought-provoking, and let me to share a very personal story with you that I haven’t really talked much about until today. I am sharing it because I realize now that stories like this remind us that there is both a delightful, innocent child and a good-hearted person residing in every soul on the planet.
The random act of kindness I tell of is only very tiny, but I know by the smiles on the faces of those concerned that it was worth the effort.
Walking home late one summer afternoon,I passed a church hall as parents and children were leaving to go home. The children had clearly been painting and had their works of art in their little hands. A mother with her two children crossed the road a little ahead of me, it was a breezy day and one child dropped her painting. No one noticed, except me, as I saw what had happened from behind them. The breeze took the painting back into the road, from where I retrieved it, then hurried to catch them up so that I could return it. By the time I did so, the child had noticed that her painting was gone and was crying, the mother was searching back along the road with her eyes, unable to see where the work of art was. Then I appeared with said piece, and both mother and child’s faces absolutely lit up, and the mother couldn’t stop thanking me! Really, it was just such a tiny little thing to do, and took little effort or time on my part, but it meant so much to them, and it made them so happy. It also made me very happy, and I walked the rest of my way home with a smile on my face, so the effect was twofold. I looked up at the sky with a smile and silent word of gratitude to Spirit for having given me the chance to do that random act of kindness. It felt nice.
Oh, I forgot to say, yes, I do believe in magic. Not necessarily the kind surrounded by sparkles and twinkles, but just secret little things that seem to me to be magic. A smile from a stranger, the flowers in my garden, bumping into an old friend, sharing a cup of coffee with said friend, finding a copy of the book I have been searching for.
Sometimes, at the start of a day, I will ask Spirit to please sent me a little piece of
magic during the day, and I always get it, just sometimes, if I am not paying attention, because it can be so subtle, I sometimes miss it at the time, and don’t recognise it until later. But, my point is, it is always granted, but I have to remember to look for it. Other times, say, I have lost something and searching for it amongst my things, I ask Spirit to pleeeeease show me where to look! And, low and behold, I am pointed in the right direction and the missing item appears. Now, I’d definately call that magic.
You put a smile on my face as well! Good on ya, Anne!!
See, sharing random acts of kindness makes them multiply. Let’s get a collection of these!!
Hello Astrid,
It’s me again! I’m sorry, I don’t mean to try to monopolise this space, but having told about the little thing earlier, I’d really love to tell about a huge random kindness that was done for myself and my family during the very sad time surrounding my fathers death in November last. Firstly, my dad had already paid for his own funeral, by way of some kind of insurance policy, which covered everything from his coffin to the hearse. However, it only covered for one car for family to ride to the crematorium, and in the end, we required two cars. It wasn’t a problem and the funeral directors made the necessary arrangements.
What was completely unexpected, and extremely generous and kind, was that they waived the fee for the second car. The fee would have been around two hundred pounds, so you can see how generous this gesture was. And it came out of the blue, from a quite a large company, large companies sometimes having the reputation of ‘giving nothing away’!
But the story of their kindness doesn’t stop here. On the day of the funeral, several family members had travelled from far, and were completely unfamiliar with the territory. They got lost on the way to the crematorium. We were fortunate in that my dads funeral was the last one of the day, so the funeral directors and other people working there agreed to delay for as long as possible to give the family members time to arrive, a great kindness in itself. Then, when after some time they still hadn’t arrived, the young man who had driven the funeral family limo took off in said vehicle and drove around the local roads for some time in an effort to locate the missing people. He didn’t have to do that, and nobody had requested it of him, he just did it. How wonderfully kind was he? How wonderfully kind were they all?!
There was a good ending, the family members made it, just in time, and the funeral went ahead. My brother, who is a Vicar, deserves a mention here too, as he actually conducted the service, which was so very hard for him. But he did it, with great courage and dignity, and he made my dads funeral beautiful.
Also, my sons fiance, who is a florist, did the floral tributes for the entire family, into which she poured such love, and refused to be paid a penny more for them except actual cost of the flowers. Another wonderful kindness.
My experience, not just with the story I’ve just told, but with miriad things that happen day to day, is that the world actually is full of kindnesses, performed by wonderful people with the kindest of hearts. I think we sometimes forget it as we are bombarded on a daily basis, and almost non-stop , by media coverage of bad news. And certain tv programmes, and films, seem almost to celebrate the dark side of things, of greed and calousness, lying and cheating, in the name of entertainment, until it seems to become accepted as the norm. The kind of ‘grab it all while you can and to hell with the others’ attitude. That’s sad, and we have to fight it!
Sorry, waffling on here!
Anne,
You are not waffling here at all. I and the readers are enjoying and growing thanks to your story.
That is yet another BEAUTIFUL realisation of what ‘Random Acts of Kindness’ look like.
I think part of why sharing Random Acts of Kindness is so powerful, is that it remind us of other moments of generosity and delight.
And, as per ‘the secret” that we now all share: ‘WHAT YOU FOCUS ON INCREASES”.
Anne, I expect another story … later today !!
Hello AGAIN Astrid
Thanks for your comment, and your encouragement.
I agree completely with you about the knock on effect, I have noticed sometims at work, if people are down and complaining, sometimes all it takes is a word of encouragement, or a positive word at least, and it kind of rubs off, and by the end of th shift, people are smiling and singing as they work. Completely wonderful.
O.K. Astrid, you have really got me going here you know! And so now I have one or two more stories of random kindness.
The first is about my youngest son, and took place when he was around 5 years old. A group of elderly people were invited to his school to meet the teachers and the children, and have a look at the work that went on in the school. Each child was appointed as guide to one elderly person. The lady that my son was appointed to enjoyed herself so much that at the end of the visit she gave my son a 50p piece to “buy some sweeties ” with. It meant much more to him than sweeties, and he vowed never ever to spend that 50p piece, but to keep it always as a reminder of the lady and the lovely time they had spent together. He has it still, and he is now 25 years old! A kindness shared and never forgotten.
The second involves myself and a favourite customer of mine. She bought me a box of chocolates at Christmas, simply because I had made her feel that she mattered when she shopped.
And another customer who was often in the shop and enjoyed a chat, and was famed for the lovely cakes she made for friends and family for birthdays and other celebrations. She mentioned that this particular day was her own birthday, and my colleague and I wished her a happy birthday, and I said I hoped that she had made herself a lovely cake too. She replied that she had, finished shopping, and went off to make her way home. About an hour or so later, she reappeared in the shop with two enormous slices of her cake, one for me and one for my colleague, to have “on your tea break”. This lady was celebrating her 70th birthday, and yet she had taken the bus home, and then taken the bus back into the town centre, with the cake! The cake was very tasty, and the lady was extremely kind, wouldn’t you say?!
And then at another time, when on my way home from work, I chanced upon a young mother (a friend of my elder son), pushing her tiny child in a pushchair. It was winter, and freezing, and the young mother had no gloves and as we were talking she told me her hands were so cold they were painful. It so happens that I often mislay my gloves and so have made it a habit to have a spare pair in my handbag in wintertime, just in case. And so I was able to dig them out and give them to her, and she was so thankful to have them. I was glad also, and it felt good to know she had them to keep her hands warm as she pushed the pushchair.
Then there is the sandwich and hot coffee that you buy for the Big Issue seller who has been standing in the cold for at least 2 hours.
And then there’s the random act of kindness in giving someone an encourageing word, just as you have done for me many times Astrid, even if you don’t know them, if they are telling you something, it’s nice if you can give them a positive thought about life, nice if you can listen just for a while, for as long as it takes for the bus to arrive. I’d call that a kindness too.
But all these things are two fold, because they give everyone concerned a sense of worth, and that’s so lovely.
Well, that’s just about it (hurray!) Ha ha! But it’s a good thing to think about.
Thanks Astrid. Goodnight. Many blessings!
P.S.
I had meant to say, how lovely your story is about the Hermes earrings. Totally beautiful and amazing. What is also so amazing is how the story came back to you at a much later date. I find that so interesting, how things come back to you long after the actual event, as if that particular thread of life has twisted and turned and travelled hither and thither until it got right back to you. It’s great how wierd and wonderful life can be.
Was thinking also on the subject of magic. And (wouldn’t you know it!) I have some thoughts about that too!
With regard to sycronicity and divine intervention, I have experienced that personally at least twice, and probably more without being aware.
The first time was when my husband and I were hoping to move away from the city to the deep countryside. I was expecting our second child at the time, and to cut a long story very short, although my husband found a job and lodgings in the place of our choice, it didn’t work out, the whole thing fell through, and he returned home. We were so dissappointed, and quite full of the unfairness of it all, as we had friends who had managed to move to the area with no hitches at all. But NOT US!
My pregnancy was difficult, and in order to make life easier for me, my dear (and very KIND) mum in law suggested that I move in with her until the baby was born, and so then she would be able to help take care of my first son, who was just 4 years old. Well, she lived literally at the back of the hospital where I would be going to have my baby, and if I had not moved in with her, then probably my baby would not have survived, and quite possibly, neither would I, and the birth came very suddenly, very quickly, and both I and my baby were in great distress, and only just made it to the hospital. Looking back after the event, it suddenly struck me that THIS was the reason we had not been allowed to move into the deep countryside, because had we been living where we had intended to in the countryside, then we would never have made it to the hospital, and the ending of our story could have been very different, heartbreaking in fact. And I thank the Great Spirit in theSky for watching out for us.
Also, when my parents were getting old and frail, and it was increasingly obvious that they needed much more help and security than they had where they wer living, several events took place (I won’t bore you with all the many details here), that culminated in my parents coming to live with me here, in a different district to their own, which didn’t work out in the end, but lead to them being eligable for sheltered ‘extra care’ accommodation, in the form of a brand new,lovely little self-contained flat within a safe, secure, warm sheltered block of flats, complete with carers on site 24/7. It was indeed a God-send. Sadly, my father didn’t live long after they moved in, but it was his dearest wish that his wife would be safe, secure and well provided for in the event of his death. And it is my belief that he was ready to leave the planet, as he was a very ill man, and very tired of the daily battle that his life had become, but his Spirit wouldn’t allow him to go until all these things were set in place. Again, it is only on looking back that I can clearly see the pattern, the plan, and how it all fell into place, one thing after another.
And I think this is how life is, that there is always a purpose, always a plan,and sometimes we get to see the end result, sometimes we don’t. And that’s where the faith comes into it all. Faith that all will be well, that we can trust in this.
And on a much lighter note, here are some things that are truly magic to me, but on a different level:
Rainbows (yes, I know, many people will try to give you the scientific reason for the appearance of rainbows, but I don’t want a scientific reason for everything.
Rainbows are magic, end of story!)
Trees, washed black by rain, then hung with (raindrop) diamonds glistening in the sun that invariably follows the storm.
Seagulls riding the thermals, silent, mystical beings way up in the sky.
I wished once that I could see an Angel, then for days after, every time I looked up, there were Angel shaped clouds floating in the sky.
The little robin who used to frequent my garden and used to feed from my very hand.
The first time the swallows appear, heralding the start of the summer.
Bees buzzing.
Hundreds of tiny, perfect, spiders webs hanging bejeweled and sparkling in the trees and hedges in the early morning winter mist.
The dawn chorus.
Oh dear, you know what, I really could go on and on, think I’d better stop now, before I drive you all to ………………………….
Lots of love to all.
.
It seems that you, Anne, have tapped into a vain of unconditional Divine love and guidance. Blissful! I wonder what will happen to you tomorrow, now being so opened up to the good plan of synchronicity in life, and the gorgeous unfolding of the leaves of delight once you’re giving with no expectation.
I bless you, my dear, and hope that all who read this, are inspired to add more stories to this long list of your delights.
Astrid Lee