They say what goes around comes around. If you consistently treat others with kindness, you can expect to have a pretty big kindness bank account to draw from when life throws you a curveball.
I’ve seen it happen again and again in my own life, and so has Mary Derosier from Red Lake Falls, Minn., although she and her mom were pretty surprised when it boomeranged so quickly.
“Yesterday was a day filled with kindnesses given and received for my mom and myself. We had done several things during the day to reach out to others going through difficult times. We both crochet heart doilies and my mom crochets cross bookmarks. For the past two decades we have given them as gifts to friends and strangers alike who are going through difficult times, celebrating special moments or just happen to cross our paths during the activities of daily life.
“Yesterday, Mom wanted to get to work on mowing her yard. I’m not much of a mechanic but manage to keep our lawn mowers limping along. I wasn’t planning to mow much, but just get our mowers ready to go. I decided at about 7:30 in the evening to get some of Mom’s lawn mowed as the grass was getting pretty long and she lives on Main Street so her yard is highly visible.
“My mom is 88, and I’ve had both knees replaced, so neither one of us moves too fast, but we get done what needs to be done. I thought I’d mow just the front yard and do the rest another day.
“As we were working in the front yard, a neighbor from a couple blocks away came driving in with her riding lawn mower and helped us finish the whole yard!
“Then, as we were visiting in the driveway, a car pulled in. We didn’t recognize the man driving at first, but it turned out to be an old neighbor of mom’s who moved to another part of town more than 20 years ago. We haven’t seen him much in that time and were a little embarrassed that we didn’t recognize him right away.
“He had a big smile on his face, introduced himself, and said he was doing a random act of kindness. He had driven past, seen us mowing and noticed a lot of cut grass in the yard that needed to be raked, so he brought his rake and a lawn cart and went to work!
“His son had been confirmed in our church last Sunday, so Mom ended up giving him eight cross bookmarks for himself, his wife, his children and a grandchild as a thank you for his help.
“It’s true that what you give comes back to you sevenfold! We’ve just never seen it happen quite so plainly and quickly!”
It’s nice to know kindness often shows up just when you need it.
Please continue to share your stories of kindness with me at info@nicolejphillips.com. Or send a letter to Kindness is Contagious c/o Nicole J. Phillips, The Forum, 101 5th St. N., Box 2020, Fargo, ND 58107.
Nicole J. Phillips is a former television anchor for Fox News in Fargo. She is a writer, speaker and mother of three kids. Nicole is married to Ohio University’s men’s head basketball coach Saul Phillips. Her column runs every Friday. You can visit Nicole at nicolejphillips.com/.