Random Acts of Kindness

Only the other day I read a thread on one of my home education forums about the impact of random acts of kindness on both the donor and recipient. It's a lovely feeling when you see the smile of pleasure on a neighbour's face upon receiving a handmade card or gift, particularly if it is made by the children, it's equally nice to be on the receiving end.
During the summer I escaped the house for an hour to visit a village craft fayre, It had been a horrible day- my son had been in a foul mood all day and nothing I did was right. I'd dealt with meltdowns and swearing and was at the end of my tether. As I walked round the church hosting the fayre I began chatting to a young girl who offered reflexology sessions and indian head massage.I was interested as my son has always found head massage has a relaxing and calming effect on him and whilst I was sure he wouldn't let anyone else touch his head I thought it might help me to know how to do it properly. As we finished our conversation and I turned to leave she passed me a small bag of bath salts which she had been selling on her stall and said she wanted me to have it. I welled up at this simple act of kindness. The gift was made at exactly the right time by someone who didn't even know me,
Only a few months later I was told that I qualified for a grant from Furness carers towards holistic therapy to provide me with some respite from the day to day responsibility of caring. The grant was for £400 and I immediately thought of that random act of kindness which had been done without motive but through caring and thoughtfulness. I was delighted to be able to ring up the young lady and book a years worth of reflexology and massage sessions. My thank you to her for showing her love on a very bad day!