Riding the Mexican Wave of Kindness

If you read my last post about random acts of kindness (click here), perhaps it encouraged you to think about how you could participate and not just surf the wave of kindness but dive right in and fully emerse yourself in it?  I realised from the number of likes and comments I received across numerous social media platforms, it was certainly a topic that struck a chord in the hearts of many, especially as it didn’t appear to be very widely known.

I happened to be away on a short family break as part of the school half term holiday and must admit, wondered what opportunities I may have to play my part.  Perhaps the offer to drive us all in one car to save my parents the hassle, not to mention petrol costs?  Yes it felt nice, but not necessarily randomly kind?  Perhaps buying lunch that day for us all?  Or helping the elderly couple struggling with their bags into the lift?  Again, treating and helping others is lovely but once more I found myself questioning “Is this enough?  Does this count?”.  Which is silly really, because surely any act of kindness, no matter how large or small, intentional or a surprise, is simply that…kindness, which can only be a good thing?

Focusing on it in this way however, made me very conscious of just how many acts of kindness we also received in the space of just a few hours, some of which I thought I’d share with you here:

1) On checking into our rooms at the hotel, we were given the wonderful news that we had been upgraded!  Apparently, Sharon Court, the Travel Counsellor who had arranged our trip for us, had sent an email requesting this for us, so a double whammy of kindness straight off the bat!

2) After a bracing walk around part of the Windsor Great Park in the cold wind to view the Magna Carta memorial and other landmarks, we called into a local cafe to warm up and refuel.  Unfortunately, my son could find nothing on the slightly limited menu that he liked but the kind owner offered to make something especially for him (as long as we didn’t tell anyone else!)… = 1 happy 8 year old and an even happier Mum plus cafe owner!

3) Within minutes of being seated in the restaurant at the hotel that evening, the maitre d’ brought over a fantastic, multi-coloured mocktail for my son, which was almost as big as him.  This was completely free of charge and whilst you would be forgiven for thinking “well, that’s just a marketing ploy to warm you up and get you to order many others at full price”, this couldn’t have been further from the truth.  The service at the hotel was amazing and not only did all the staff members pay particular attention to my son and make him feel thoroughly special and spoiled for the entire stay, but that free drink was the first of many (and they certainly weren’t all ‘mock’tails!).

The list could honestly go on and on, but suffice to say that the acts of kindness I was part of that day truly made me appreciate just how kindhearted we humans genuinely are and that goes such a long way in a time when we are fed images on an almost daily basis of the opposite kinds of behaviours around the world.

So, if my post has helped to bring an unexpected act of kindness to just one more person in this world, then that certainly makes me happy and who knows, this wave may just continue to flow….