Gratitude

Every morning on my way to work, I amuse myself with a read from the 24Hour paper.

Well actually I find news quite depressing on the best of days so I wouldn't really call it amusing but none-the-less there are some days when I come across a little nugget of joy that makes me smile, making it all worth it.

Today a reader had been having a rough start to her day and wanted to write in to this newspaper to publicly thank someone for his kind gesture of holding the bus that she was running to catch. I just loved her outpouring of appreciation and I wonder if he realized at the time, how much his gesture meant.

I've been in this situation many-o-times so I can completely relate how much it means to catch the bus you need to catch.

In fact on Friday my bus didn't show so I had to run to the commuter rail station from my house. I had 10mins before the next train came and I had a 12minute run ahead of me. Needless to say I ran REALLY REALLY fast.

After 10minutes of running, I was in sight of the station and I still had time - the train hadn't arrived yet. But just as fast as that thought popped into my head, the train pulls up and I still have a minute or two of running. I kept pushing, harder, faster and finally...I make it!

Thankfully the conductor had seen a few stragglers running and decided to hold the train for an extra minute. I really appreciated the gesture of him waiting. It really would have to sucked to run all that way and have to wait a 1/2 hour for the next one. Luckily it wasn't all for not and I made sure to leave a gratitude card on my chair when I left.

These stories really make me consider my own actions and how much a small gesture can affect others in such a big way. You could literally be making, or breaking, someone's day based on what you do, or don't do. That's why we gotta make 'every...one' count.