Random Kindness

We all have one of those days. Or one of those moments. When you are struggling to achieve a task/s and one thing just keeps going wrong or you just plain feel like you are never going to get there.

We all have our moments also when we step in and give random kindness to our family, friends or strangers. And what a wonderful surprise it can be.

Today I took the kids to Wal Mart to do our grocery shopping. I had a good friend join me also with her own two kids (and also of course her new baby on the way! yay!). We've had company at our house off and on for the past two weeks and quite a bit of company the week of the 11th for the baptism. My mom and cousin just left yesterday. The kitchen needed to be restocked so I had a nice hefty list. I didn't realize it's capacity until I got to the store and was shopping with Zachary chattering about this item and that while I was trying to make decisions, and with Adelyn strapped to me in the sling which gave me the idea that my shoulder was going to fall off any second. Zachary, trying hard to help me, threw items into the shopping cart when I would hand them to him. The chicken had a dent in it and the strawberry container flew open all over the bottom of the basket. And what joy it brought me to have to use one hand to support Adelyn and another arm to reach over and down into the basket to slowly clean up the strawberries. And then there was the lady who I'm sure thought she had given ever such detailed and superb assistance when I asked her where the industrial cd cleaner was by saying, "oh that? yeah it's there" and fluttering her arm vaguely towards some isle for about .3 seconds. Though my friend and I walked slowly with puzzled expressions as we glanced here and there we did end up finding a small kit for purchase among other random objects at the end of the isle. So we ended up asking the photo department who told me they don't have one that they do themselves. Thankfully this shopping trip did not require jumbo sized bags of dog food or dirt for the garden. At the end of the trips on the way to the check out and even out to the car turtles have the opportunity to boast about how much more fast they can go comparatively. We each reached our car and I opened the trunk to put stuff in. I handed Zachary his gummy bears, pulled out my keys and began unlocking the car when Zachary INSISTED that he be the one to unlock the car while I'm longing to take Adelyn out of the sling and put her in the car. He's yelling and grabbing them out of my hand and car and I threaten to take the snack in the car. I see a gentleman walk by to his car on the other side of mine and I'm sure he's seen the whole catastrophe while he's quickly putting his stuff into his trunk. I return to my own trunk and begin unloading the groceries. Of course I forgot my large HEB reusable bags that can fit a large amount of items so instead had about 89 plastic bags to reach down and grab, lift and relocate in the trunk. But much to my surprise, the gentlemen who parked next to us was returning his cart and said, "here let me give you a hand" and proceeded to put my groceries in the trunk for me. And returned my cart. Wow, I appreciated that so much. I thanked him a few times and he said it was no problem.

Little things like that sure make a big difference. Circumstances can prevent us from doing some, but there are others that maybe we can when someone else can't.

Overall the shopping trip wasn't terrible and we did enjoy ourselves. We found pretty much everything we wanted, the line was very short, I had good company with my friend and her children and I was delighted to see Zachary pick out his first item that he paid for with his own money. Although he had a hole in the ziplock bag he put it in, I made sure I carried it in my pocket and he got to put it all up on the counter for the lady to take. He had chosen gummy bears and was so proud.