Acts of Kindness
This is a true, beautiful, simply lovely story, that I want to share in hopes it will do a little to restore your faith in your fellowman. Something we need more than ever right now.
Like most of you, I spend my time running from one appointment to another and doing my best to keep all the balls I’m juggling from falling down around my feet. One of those balls is my desire to launch “Let’s Choose Love Mini Grants” an initiative designed to inspire people to extend their love in the world. Yesterday, my plan was to finish work, treat myself to a much-needed massage, and then open my MacBook and start writing.
However, before I could write a story to encourage people to spread more love, more love was extended to me.
As I went to pay for the massage, I realized my wallet was not in my pocketbook. I figured I had left it at home until I got back in the car, opened my cellphone and saw a several urgent texts and emails from a number I did not recognize. The message read “Found Wallet.” “Hi Wendy, my name is Vic and I found your wallet on Tunnel Rd in front of Bojangles near exit 55 off I-40. Please contact me ASAP and I will return it with all its contents.”
My first thoughts went to the phrase “return with all of its contents” and I realized that included: my passport, credit cards, information for my covid vaccine shot, and a fifty-dollar bill that was a gift from my parents just sticking out as you opened it up. Yikes! I immediately rang Vic.
Lost and Found
I was so appreciative that I would have driven anywhere to meet him and pick up the wallet, but he said that the numbers were hard to read in the trailer park where he lived and he did not want me to get lost. We determined that the East Asheville Animal Hospital parking lot was the best place to connect.
As I turned down the street where the hospital was located, I saw a brown SUV coming down the hill that I was going up. I figured it must be Vic. This thought was confirmed as the window of the brown truck began to roll down and I spied a man with a long white beard, big smile and an extended hand that held my wallet.
He said he was driving down Tunnel Road and something in the middle of the street caught his eye as he passed. He thought it might be a wallet so turned around to get a closer look. He pulled over to the side of the road and made his way through traffic to retrieve the object. It took a bit of detective work to figure out what might have happened and who it belonged to. At first he tried the Bojangles with no luck. He then did some poking around and found a receipt with my phone number. That gave him the information he needed to send me a text. When he tried the number, the voice message said “you've reached Continuum Consulting” so that gave him the clue he needed to look on the internet for Continuum, and that is how he found my email. As he talked, I realized that I must have put my wallet on the top of the car when I stopped to get gas, and then when I hopped in and took off down the road, my wallet went flying.
I thanked him profusely, told him about my “Let’s Choose Love” blog, and asked if I could take a picture of him and share this story. As I reflected on our short conversation, I was overwhelmed by the number of small kindnesses he extended to me tonight. From the first time he noticed something in the middle of the road and went back to check it out, to all the effort he put into figuring out how to contact me. And in the end, when we suggested an easy and safe place to meet to return the wallet, with all of the contents, back to me.
I was reminded tonight, that even with all of the chaos going on in the world, there is still so much love and kindness out there if we take time to look.
Extending these small kindnesses and acts of love can make such a big impact and we each have the power to do so, every-day.
It is our choice. I invite you to choose love.
