Being kind, empathetic, compassionate, helpful – are these really worth it? This question has been plaguing me for a while now. More often than not, kindness is taken for granted, free help or advice is never valued, empathetic people are taken advantage of. Growing up, I believed that one good act will beget another in return. But in reality, the balance doesn’t always tally up neatly.

Anlaysing rationally, this is not hard to understand. If a stranger is helpful to us, we will appreciate it, but most of us don’t appreciate the daily kindness of our mothers. It is just easy to take for granted that which happens regularly.

So then, is trying to be good and kind and nice everyday, really worth it? Well, this is the answer I have come up with so far. If being a good person – a better version of myself – makes me respect myself more, if the possibility of brightening few moments of one person’s life somewhere in the distant future seems worthwhile, then yes, it’s all worth it. But this is a question that each individual has to answer for his/her self.

There will still be moments when we might feel undervalued, people we have to move away from, situations where we have to stand up for ourselves. But along with those instances, there will also come those rare ones where, knowingly and unknowingly, we make someone’s day better.

And this story has reinforced my belief.

My heart was warmed at Wal-Mart during lunch.

This gentleman’s items were scanned and he was given the total. He looks apologetically back at me and starts taking handfuls of change out of his pockets. He miscounts and starts to get flustered. Gives me a muttered, “I’m so sorry.” His hands and voice are shaking. This beautiful cashier takes his hands and dumps all the change on the counter and says, “This is not a problem, honey. We will do this together.” He continues to apologize to both of us as we reassure him it’s ok. They get his transaction handled and he shuffles away.

I looked at this wonderful woman and said, “Thank-you for being so patient with him.”
She shakes her head and replies, “You shouldn’t have to thank me, baby. What’s wrong with our world is we’ve forgotten how to love one another.”

I want to be more like her.

(Source: Upworthy)

I hope one day, someone looks at me and says, “I want to be more like her“