Stepping out of comfort zones.

This story of a random act of kindness is actually about my mother.

She came home from Hawaii the other day and upon asking her how her trip was she turned to me and said, “well, I just have to tell you that you inspired me to do something…”

Immediately I was like oh no, what did I do…

She told me that on her last day in Hawaii, she was lying on the beach and saw a man a few towels over struggling to pack up his stuff. He was an elderly Hawaiian man who clearly had back problems, among other issues which made it nearly impossible for him to bend over and pick anything up. She said it was painful to watch this poor frail man, but at first that’s all she did, in thinking that obviously someone else, much closer to him, would surely help. But no one did.

She waited another few minutes, still thinking that any second one of the people who were already close enough that they literally just needed to lean over a few inches to help him would jump up, because how could they not?But no one did.

Now to fill you in, my mom is very self conscious of her body on a good day, so take that put her in a bathing suit and she basically just wants to hide under a rock. Despite this, she got up (draped in a towel) and walked right in front of all the people on the beach over to the man, forcing herself every step of the way. She got to the man and worked up the nerve to ask him if he needed any help. He looked up timidly and in a heavy accent, said no, no! I'm okay! And shewed her away.

My mom immediately turned around panicked, and basically ran back to her towel, feeling horrible but still proud that she had at least asked (or at least trying to convince herself of this)

Finally, on his own, the man finally managed to pack up his things and take off.

Awhile later my mom was ready to leave, so she too packed up and left the beach. On walking back, she saw the man standing in the parking lot with a huge basket. He walked over to my mom and gave her this package full of homemade goodies fresh from his farm. He explained that he so greatly appreciated her offer to help, and could not believe that she had been so kind. He had gone home and packed up a whole basket full of fresh baked food and Hawaiian treats , each wrapped up beautifully.

My mom was somewhat embarrassed at the time but it obviously meant a lot to her (in her telling me the story, she had a huge grin on her face). It proved that even pushing yourself a tiny bit to do something kind for someone else can have more of an impact than you would ever imagine. And on top of making someone else feel good, you get that warm fuzzy feeling in your heart too. And who knows, you might just get some delicious treats out of it!

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Brandi is a blogger from Vancouver, British Columbia who writes about her adventures, or rather misadventures, in love, school, cupcakes and her delightful obsession with rollerskating. Outside of blogging she is a full time nursing student and part time collector of bows and other things properly doll-like. In trying to balance her real life with the time she spends in her head, she tells some fun stories and adds some randomness to the idea of random acts of kindness.

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PLEASE NOTE: TBG is not a spectator sport. This post is intended to spark something bigger.

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