a small kindness.

Wednesday, September 12

The other week, a customer gave me a gift. It was drizzly outside, and she was waiting for her friend at a table by the window. I was cleaning her table and she said,

'Do you like sweet things?

I looked up and saw she was holding out a hard-boiled orange sweetie for me.

'Oh,' I said, 'thank-you very much.' And I popped it inside my apron pocket.

I didn't eat it ('Rule Number One: Don't eat sweets from strangers!!'). But it was kind of her to give me it. And I tried to receive the gift.

(My mum, wise lady that she is, is often talking about how it is quite a brave thing for people to offer kindness ...whether it takes the shape of an invitation, or a few words, or a hard boiled sweetie. Giving things, offering things, leaves people vulnerable. So receiving is, in a way, kind as well.

This is something I'm trying to get better at: resisting the urge to get embarrassed, or to automatically say 'no thanks', or to make excuses. So many things just don't come naturally.)


(Picture: sweet-peas from my Gran's garden. A love heart mark on the window. )

1 comment:

  1. hahaha, i don't know...i love that you didn't eat it! that's so sweet and i often experienced the same thing when i used to serve.
    get this though, the other day i was waiting for my ride outside and this guy on the street asked me if i wanted to try his pepperoni stick (no for real, a meat stick). i probably said it looked tasty or something (but i meant one of my own!!) anyways, i was so taken a back that i accepted a piece and ate it! it felt sooo weird...

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