Surprised by kindness

I am surrounded by people of kindness, so much that it fills me with wonder at times. You'd think that in a world where we hear so much about anger and violence and unrest, that you would meet an extraordinary amount of unkind and hateful people. I read so many stories to that effect every day at work.

In fact, the opposite is true. Throughout my life I have been touched by the goodness and kindness of the people I associate with. Often I expect to see poor behavior, which I do on occasion, but overall people truly are good and looking to spread hope and light to a dark world.

What brought this to my mind was tonight while at work we received a call from a co-worker who'd gone home for the night only to end up in a crash, completely totalling her car. Everyone there was concerned for her, and several people suggested going to pick her up until someone could come get her.

Only moments later, one of our co-workers, who has had several severe health problems, wasn't keeping up with his work and had disappeared for a few minutes. Instead of complaining, several people pitched in to lighten his workload and others were more concerned about his health than the work he wasn't completing.

Maybe I'm jaded, but I was really surprised by the outpouring of kindness I saw this evening. I've also been pleasantly surprised this week by all the kind comments I've received on my blog and all the support I've witnessed in the blogging community. Rarely do I see an unkind comment, which could also be because they've been deleted. But either way, there is goodness out there if one has eyes to see it.

All this has helped me to remember an important lesson: If kindness and goodness is to flourish in the world, we must all contribute. And that includes, most importantly, me. I must look for the good in others and look past all the outward stereotypes or judgements I would make. There is goodness in everyone; I just have to take the time to see it.