Tag Archives: kindness

Pay It Forward Paid Off

20 Feb

There are nice people out there.  Just when I start to feel like impatient, inconsiderate and irrational strangers are all I encounter, a young boy with hip clothes, spikey hair and a cool earring notices someone in need and comes to the rescue.

Ok, so it’s not like I was a damsel in distress or anything that serious – I was more a lady blocked at a turn-stall.  Being a novice at riding mass-transit, I touched my card to open my turn-stall but I was standing at the wrong one.  That meant my paid ticket had been used and I was stuck while a crowd formed behind and Andrew and Nate were a few steps ahead on the other side of the stalls.  That’s when the kind kid held his card through the stall for me to use.  Just like that.  He saw someone struggling and he made a simple, thoughtful gesture.

I think of this experience as a “pay it forward” that paid off because, just a few hours before this, a homeless man asked Andrew if he could spare any money and Andrew opened his wallet and gave the man all he had.  Whether it was the right thing to do or not, the man was so grateful and it felt good to help.  I hope that kid got the same feeling when he helped me.  I really appreciated it.

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Mr. Rogers would be proud

21 Feb

I’ve been so fortunate to have lived next door to some really wonderful people.  I really can’t take credit for any of it – my mom and dad picked the first house and with our two houses, we had no idea who lived next to us.  Call it fate or luck or God or whatever you want to call it, but so far, we’ve had some of the best neighbors.

The neighbors I had while I was growing up are like family to me.  I’m so happy they are there for my mom and that my mom is there for them.  We’ve always had the key to their house and they’ve always had ours.  We’ve shared in ALL the happy family moments together, as well as the sad ones.  I couldn’t imagine my life without them.  I even got introduced to their culture and religion, attending Greek Bible School with them and even learning some of their language and traditions.  Words really can’t touch the appreciation and love I have for them.

When we lived in Savannah, the couple across the street helped take care of me while Andrew was deployed in Iraq and I was pregnant.  They landscaped our front yard and decorated our house for Andrew’s homecoming.  When they moved away, we tried to stay in touch.  One time, we ran into each other at the Atlanta Zoo and it was only because they recognized my laugh echoing through the trees!  I heard, “Nicole Valles, is that you?!?!”  It was a great feeling and we still continue to try to keep in touch.

Our neighbors now, Allison and James, are just as wonderful.  They’ve done the usual ‘neighborly’ thing of caring for our turtle, Clark, while we’re away and collecting our mail, but they’ve also alerted us to two outdoor spectacles that we would have missed if it wasn’t for them – the snow that fell here last month and tonight’s lunar eclipse.  Allison has even invited me to go with her and her friends for a birthday celebration this weekend in Atlanta!  I was like, “She likes me!  She really likes me!”  And so far, I haven’t done anything embarrassing to change her mind!

 

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