kind people

Today I drove my van up to a river and just sat and watched the water and sipped coffee and rested. A friend came to join me. Eventually, cars started to fill up the tiny campsites beside  us along the river, many of them full of people who were starting fires and gathering around them in the brisk February air. Lunch hour was coming and the fires were tempting... so before long we were starting our own fire with newly acquired wood and preparing to roast hot dogs. 

I noticed that the older couple in the lot beside us had been helping the group of people on the other side of them to start a fire. This couple had an axe that Gina and I soon realized we sorely lacked. I walked over with one of our logs and asked if we too could borrow the use of their axe, and the two greeted me as the man took the log from my hand and began to chop it himself. After he’d finished, he told me what we really needed was some cedar; as he spoke he walked over to his own stack of scrap wood and soon had a small armful for me. The woman told me he was a woodworker, so they had lots of scraps. As he handed me back my log and the cedar kindling, he added in a bag of other scrap pieces, and I could see designs of flowers and letters that he must have used in beautiful projects of late. I thanked them profusely and returned to our fire. 

We must have appeared to be struggling because before long the man came over to us with few words but with a bag overflowing with paper scraps; he instructed us a bit and soon our fire was a success. 

“There are so many nice people in the world,” we reflected as he walked away. 

As the couple prepared to leave, the woman came up to us once more and introduced herself and we thanked her again. As she said goodbye, she handed us each a little wooden face with heart eyes and told us it was a Valentine; she said her husband had wanted to give them to us but felt too shy to do it himself. We were delighted by their kindness and the beautiful aroma of the wood, and we laughed and waved as they drove away. A gift for no purpose but to bless, and bless us it did. 

I think that we have a skewed idea of our fellow humans. The media has left us certain that the world is full of tricksters and crooks, that strangers are danger, that kindness is a rare exception. 

But today was a simple reminder of the beautiful truth that most of us, all over the world, are decent and kind people who enjoy the chance to bless another. 

Let’s keep being those people, and remembering what a lovely world we have when we’re together.