In Mother Teresa’s “Anyway” poem, one of the lines is “If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives; Be kind anyway.” Yes, there will be some people who question or judge our motives, but that shouldn’t stop us from being friendly, generous and considerate to others. Sometimes we are the giver of an act of kindness. Other times, we are the recipient. It doesn’t matter. Kindness makes everyone feel good.
My daughter shared this story. Many years ago a man who lived in New York City decided to visit his parents two hours north. As he approached their small town, his car broke down. A woman stopped to offer a ride to a mechanic in town, and as they chatted on the way in, he learned that she was a local realtor. He shared that he was from the city visiting his parents. They went their separate ways, but he never forgot her kindness.
Forty years later, his parents now deceased, the son needed to sell their house. He remembered the realtor who had helped him all those years ago and called her office. Unfortunately, the woman had passed away, but her daughter and granddaughter were running the business and ended up being his realtors. As it turns out, they sold the parents’ house to my daughter and son-in-law! A simple act of kindness had a ripple effect decades later.
In most cases, we never know the long-term effect of our acts of kindness. But the recipient often never forgets. So don’t let fear or judgment get in the way of being kind to someone. As the Greek philosopher Aesop once said, “No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.” And sometimes, in a strange way, it might even come back to us.
