simple act of kindness

people who know me well knew i had a difficult hurdle to cross a few years ago. i lost someone very dear and close to me in the blink of an eye, which left me with a multitude of extreme feelings and emotional turmoil beyond which i have experienced. perhaps it was the first time that i have gone through such loss or perhaps it was the abruptness of the events. i never knew how it felt to lose someone whom you will never expect to leave you. people die all the time, yes, but usually old sick people. not young ones who were just laughing and talking with you last week.

that is all history, and i'm not trying to relive that part of my life again.

it was a trying time. during that time, one person texted me every couple of weeks, or perhaps months. he wasn't even what i would have termed a friend, we weren't even that close. he knew me by reason of marriage and he only knew her in passing. still, i received text messages from him every so often, enquiring how i was doing, how i was handling. simple short messages. i didn't pay it much thought back then, and perhaps i still do not. but deep down, i am grateful for his simple act of kindness. people that i have thought were my friends have not enquired about my condition quite so often. here, a person who was just marginally more than a stranger, was helping me through the lowest point of my life then. nothing much, just some 'how are you coping?' or perhaps 'how are you?' are already a few sentences more than some friends expressed.

when someone ask, i can answer. i can say what's bearing down hard on my mind, and in my heart. how i'm missing her still, or how i can't take it anymore. but when no one asks, i can only keep it quietly locked inside of me. so silently, even without my realising it, he eased the pain a little. he provided me with an outlet, as short as the replies were.

sometimes, when you don't realise it, your simple act of kindness makes a little difference in the lives of others. when you find a lost wallet and call the owner to return it, when you smile at the person in the lift and leave with a 'have a nice day', when you call a lost child's parent to locate her parent, when you lend a helping hand. decent acts by decent human beings, which amount to just being gracious in your daily life, having a thought about someone else other than yourself. simple acts that touches the lives of others. these are so few and far between nowadays.


thank you, mister.