Random Acts of Kindness

OK, so I felt like a bit of a bitch after yesterday's post.

Moral of the story: don't post things on the internet when you're feeling angry. I still agree with what I said, I just wonder if I presented it in the best way.

I do understand where the guy was coming from, and while it hit a nerve with me, I appreciate that he was trying to help.

I decided to put myself in a more positive frame of mind by thinking about the random acts of kindness I have received recently from some very wonderful members of the public.

Without these, many of my days would have been a much bigger struggle than they ended up being.

* Many lovely people have given up their seats for me at bus stops and on buses. Sometimes they've even given up their seat when there have been others available, but theirs was just that little bit closer.

I don't think I can even explain how much I appreciate this. Being able to sit down for five minutes, or while on the bus makes such a difference to my day. In fact, it makes my day possible. Thank you so much.

* A man in the supermarket offered to help me with my shopping because he thought it might be a struggle for me to manage it. I'm not sure if he worked at the shop or not but, either way, it was was very thoughtful of him.

As it happened, I was only buying a packet of chippies, so I politely declined the offer.

Even so, it was a kind gesture and one I'm thankful for.

* A teenage boy picked up my shopping for me when my biodegradable bag biodegraded on the bus.

There was no way I would have been able to pick it up myself. He saw I was struggling and helped me out. I'm not really sure what I would have done without him. It may not seem like much, but believe me, it made a huge difference to me.

* The people in the blood test office always take my blood in the small room off the waiting room because it's closer. They were also really wonderful in cleaning me up and looking after me when my arm randomly decided to start bleeding out.

* When I left the blood test office that day, I collapsed in the foyer and many lovely strangers looked after me. One woman even offered to go buy me chocolate and another walked down the road with me back to my writing space.

I wonder if any of the "givers" of these random acts of kindness actually remember doing them. Possibly the people who found me on the floor in the foyer do but I bet the others forgot about it pretty quickly. The people who gave up their seats probably didn't even think about it again.

For me, these are things I won't forget because they made such a huge difference to my day. I can't repay them, but I can pay it forward and start the cycle of random kindness again. I know it's very unlikely that any of those people will read this but even so, I hope they know how big a difference they made.

Little Miss Autoimmune