Go Out Of Your Way

As you might imagine, I have one very large life decision that is pretty much at the forefront of my mind all the time now, which makes blog writing difficult.  Most people who read this are already in my circle and have heard enough about the "a" word the past few weeks.
So instead, I'd like to focus on something that never gets talked about enough.

Being Nice.

Going out of your way to make someone else's day better.

Putting aside your own needs for just a bit for the sake of someone else.


Most people I know would go out of their way to help someone and might do nice things without a lot of thought.  That's the joy of living in a small town and associating with the caliber of people that I do.  The friends I have here have been "caught" in the act of doing something nice on numerous occasions.  In the ten minutes I was at the local coffee shop, I witnessed one giving after another.  First, two elderly ladies were splitting a sandwich-- the first offered that the second pick the bread,then the second offered to pay.  Then, there was a "polite fight" about who was in line first and I am certain the person who ended up going next was not next in line, but no one seemed to mind.  As it was busy, one woman who is a regular got her own coffee cup and poured her own drink and left money near the register (including tip) and told Heather what she had gotten, just so she wouldn't be in the way.  There wasn't a lot of cheddar broccoli soup left and everyone was ordering it, so I asked Heather to change my order to chilli so the person behind me could have the soup of her choice.  I paid for my soup with a gift certificate given to me as a simple "nice gesture" from a sweet friend.  

We didn't have to do this.  We could have waited in line, stared grumpily at our shoes, bought our items and waited impatiently for our order to be filled.  We could have left having not said a word and the world would have kept going.  Instead, we all left feeling a little more uplifted by the kindness of others.  No one saved the day or handed us $100 bills, but those little acts surely lifted everyone's spirits.

Kindness doesn't take a lot.  I missed out on the broccoli cheese soup yesterday, but chilli was just fine.  It wasn't my first choice, but it's one lunch of 7 for the week, I think I can handle not having exactly what I wanted.  Letting someone go ahead of me in line at the Safeway check out line made my wait a whole five minutes longer than it needed to be, but I still got to where I needed to go with plenty of time to spare.  Being aware of my surroundings and saying "excuse me" when I walk close to someone does nothing but make the world a little more polite and was of no inconvenience to me at all.  Smiling at people when they make eye contact just makes me smile more in a day.

It's cliche to say we live in a busy world.  But we do.  It's the truth.  Our noses (including mine, unfortunately) are close to our phones.  We have schedules to keep, things to do.  Sometimes it's easy to think that everyone else should accomadate us because what we have to do is so much more important.  Sometimes it's easy to cut someone off in traffic or keep or walk past someone who might need a hand because we've got places to be.  Sometimes, we might even think about it but decide that everyone will understand why we didn't do something nice.  As the saying goes, we judge others by actions and ourselves by our intentions.  We intend to be nice but sometimes we don't do it.  But boy, we notice when someone else isn't acting nice.

So I'd like to challenge you, even if you think you have this whole "nice" thing down, to keep doing it.  It's not about looking good, it's not about letting everyone step on you.  It's not necessary to make the world go 'round.   It's just to make life a little better.

Going out of your way, even just a little, does a lot of little things.  You are given a sense of satisfaction for a job well done (I picture it's a quick wink from God, saying, "hey, nice job, kid!").  That feels good, so we want to replicate it, so you do a few more nice things.  Those nice things make other people see the nice happening and feel good about it.  So they do a nice thing.

Nice is catching people, and it's not a bad thing.  Make it a habit and it'll make things better.  We all know this already, but we need to keep talking about it.  Kindness is important.