Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.
- Leo Buscaglia


Monday, May 14, 2012

Doubling the Kindness

     I promise this will be the last story related to bringing my daughter home from college.  As we've done before, we rented a minivan for the trip so that we'd more easily be able to fit everything in one vehicle.  We arrived home last this afternoon and after emptying out the van, I headed to the rental car place to  handle the return.
     The woman at the rental car counter was particularly pleasant so I decided I might use one of my gift cards for her.  When I noticed that she had a cup of coffee behind her that was from Starbucks, I asked her if she liked going there.  Following her affirmative answer, I presented her with a Starbucks gift card.  She was quite surprised and commented that it was so nice of me.  I told her that my only request was that she do something nice for someone else today, to which she readily agreed.
     As I've noted before, I'm trying to be better about gently suggesting a pay-it-forward notion to recipients of my acts of kindness, wherever it feels reasonably appropriate.  In this way, I can at least double the kindness that gets put out into the world from each act.

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