Corrie Lynne Player

10/7/13 Saint George Spectrum

saintgeorgespectrum.ut.newsmemory.com/?token=18a9b928db0ad7322e425f31feeaee8a&cnum=2416299&fod=1111111STD&selDate=20131005&licenseType=… 1/2

Kindness can be contagious

I was pushing my shopping cart along, lost in thought, the other day when I felt a touch on my arm. I turned to see a

woman whose name I couldn’t remember, something that’s not so unusual for me.

I found myself looking at her blankly. Her name, what’s her name, I asked myself frantically. Sally? Kathy? Sandy?

Sarah? Mandy? I think it starts with an S .... or does it end with a Y?

She smiled a smile that lit up her eyes and beamed from her whole face. I couldn’t help smiling back. We chatted for a

moment and then resumed our shopping. A glow grew in my heart and my step was lighter — just because she

recognized me enough to get my attention and smile.

She didn’t call me by name, so she may not have remembered mine, either. She could have gone on by, just like I do so

often when I see somebody whose name I can’t quite re member.

What mattered was her stop ping me, smiling, and, in a moment, boosting my day.

Not too long ago, I wrote about random (and not so random) acts of kindness and asked you to tell me about your

experiences. Your response has made this a most delightful column for me to write.

The following are just a few of the things you shared.

A couple who moved to Cedar City a few months ago said a pitcher of roses was left on their front door step.

“But who could have left them? We don’t know our neighbors very well,” the wife said. “There were 18 roses, not a dozen,

but 18! Can you imagine? And gorgeous, oh, they just took my breath away — just like red velvet.”

As we continued to talk, we mentioned how much fun it was not to know exactly who gave them.

“It makes you feel warm about everybody, doesn’t it?” said the husband.

Another reader wrote that somebody in the car in front of her paid her entrance fee into Zion National Park one day.

Yet another wrote that she saw a man hand several $100 bills to the checkout clerk, tell her to pay for the groceries of

the woman behind him and give her any change. The woman had two little children with her, was largely pregnant and the

cart was full.

The reader was in the parallel checkout line and witnessed the woman’s dumfounded look when the clerk told her she

didn’t owe anything and handed her some cash. How much fun that man must have had to imagine what my reader saw.

One of the mom discussion boards I belong to asked, “If you found $20, what would you do with it?”

At first, I thought about taking my grandkids for an ice cream cone or putting it into a just-for-fun fund, after trying to find

who dropped it, of course.

Then I thought about the people who’d paid for

somebody’s groceries and how I wished I could afford such largess. I then realized I didn’t have to spend a lot to have the

same kind of fun. If I found $20, I’d pay for my groceries and then hand the clerk the money to apply to the bill of the

person in line behind me.

What would you do if you found $20? Let me know by emailing me at heavenhelpusbeourbest@gmail. com.

Let’s share the cheer.

TEC NAVIA

Tuesday, October 15, 2013