Personal ramblings brought on by something mild that happened at work.
Thinking about how minor acts of kindness impacts people - particularly people who are not used to receiving them.
Today one of my coworkers was very agitated and part of that was simply being hungry. So when they got interrupted before they could sit down to eat I stepped in. Go do what you gotta do, wash your hands, and I will prep your lunch.
This was not a grand gesture. They had two slices of pizza so I prepped it the way I do for myself. One goes in the microwave so it's ready faster and the other goes in the toaster oven so it's ready, and better tasting imho, by the time the first piece has been eaten. Very simple and barely took a minute of my time.
Upon realizing that I'd stuck the second piece in the toaster oven, coworker was very touched. They jokingly suggested we become platonic life partners, possibly get married for tax benefits. They've made this joke numerous times with increasing frequency.
My first thought was - dude all I did was heat up your pizza, it's not that serious.
But then I thought about it more on my hour long drive back from agility. If someone had done that for me, I'd probably get choked up or possibly cry a little. Because neither one of us is used to being on the receiving end of consideration, no matter how small. And when you're used to nothing even crumbs, or a small slice of something, can feel like everything.
Which leads me to think about the phrases: Kindness matters and Kindness is everything. Because as silly and simple as those statements are - it does and it is. Small acts of kindness or consideration aren't going to solve world hunger, but they can alleviate things for someone, and that makes a difference. Yeah it's small and temporary most of the time. But it builds upon itself and spreads outwards, or at least that's my hopeful belief.
Anyway that was a lot of navel gazing to say I think small acts of kindness do in fact matter.
