A Moment of Kindness Makes a Difference

This past Friday at work was a particularly stressful day.  One of my projects is at a critical juncture and people are feeling the pressure.  Unfortunately, instead of cool heads prevailing, there are many short-tempered, hot heads dominating the communication exchanges.  Most of the day was spent with people heatedly arguing with each other.  I truly wish I had a magic spell that could make everyone get along and communicate peacefully, but unfortunately I haven't figured that one out yet.  However, in the midst of the storm, I was able to experience a rainbow - even if it wasn't realized until a day later.

A friend of mine was particularly frustrated and was starting to send many heated emails to the team. I was worried that if I said anything to him, it would make matters worse.  However, at one point, I just felt the need to immediately go see him.  I wasn't really sure what I was going to say; however, I just KNEW that I had to go right then.  When I got to his desk, he was typing an email.  I did not see what he was typing, I merely put my hand on his shoulder and said that I was coming to him as a friend.  I asked that he shut off his email for the rest of the afternoon and not respond to anyone.  I suggested he go take a walk and cool down; get some space; take a moment for him.

He did not seem to take my words well, as his responses were curt.  He said he just left for lunch and that he was fine.  I left his desk feeling disappointed that I could not reach him.  It actually bummed me out for the rest of the day.

Here is where the beautiful part comes in.  It turns out, when I went up to him, he was about to send out a very negative email that would have been particularly damaging to him.  He said that I did reach him and that I most likely saved him his job, for which he is grateful.  Here are his exact words: "My family will never know what you did for them!  I hope you can appreciate how powerful your words became at that moment.  I can't explain it, but your voice was all I heard, telling me to walk it off."  When I told him I thought my words did nothing for him, he said: "You could not be more wrong.  Your words changed everything.  I cannot even find the depth of words to convey my gratitude."

His words brought tears to my eyes.  He is always saying to me that things happen for a reason.  Was it his angel that sent me over there?  Fate?  Serendipity?  I honestly don't know what it was - but I absolutely LOVE the phenomenon.  I love that I was compelled to go see him at a defining moment and that my words reached him and made a difference.

I guess the entire point of this blog was to share, what I feel, was a truly beautiful, fateful moment.  And to always encourage you to reach out to others when you feel they need it, as you will never know the impact that your moment of kindness will bring to their lives.

Spread kindness and sunshine.

Lovingly,

Me


Motivational Moment:

Today's moment is dedicated to the many people who have left this life recently.  For some odd reason, it seems like there have been many deaths in the past two months (at least for my family and friends).  As stated in a previous blog, my friend lost her life to ALS at the end of November.  Then my uncle passed away in late December.  Two weeks later, my cousin lost her mother and two coworkers lost close loved ones (one lost his father and the other lost her girlfriend).  I went to two wakes, one day apart last week, and both of these wakes contained this Irish Blessing:

May the road rise to meet you,

May the wind be always at your back,

May the sun shine warm upon your face,

The rains fall soft upon your fields and,

Until we meet again,

May God hold you in the palm of His hand.

I just love the warmth that this blessing brings to people.  And while talking about death may not seem appropriate for a motivational moment, I whole-heartedly disagree.  All the wakes I went to were filled with love and laughter and wonderful family bonding.  And as we get older, we are going to experience even more loss to those close to us.  However, this is the cycle of life.  This is what it is.  We must embrace it and love it and see the beauty in our journey; it would be foolish to spend our time here in any other way.

Peace and hugs,
SG