Random Acts of Kindness

May 7, 2026.

So sometimes I am known to be rather absent-minded. This past week, I was preoccupied by
several matters when some totally unanticipated bad news struck me by surprise. My mind went into a total funk and productivity completely came to a halt. After several attempts to restart my mind and focus on work, I realized that the productive part of my day was cooked relative to any meaningful work. So I decided to run some errands that I had been putting off. At least I could get some menial tasks done. The post office, the hardware store, and then the bank, but first… to find my keys. I seem to spend a lot of time looking for keys. After failing to locate them, I grabbed my extra set of keys and got in the car, only to find that I had left my regular set of keys
on the front seat of the car. (For those of you who are concerned, I was uninjured when I found
my keys attached to my posterior). I pulled my mail out of my PO Box at the Laguna Beach Post Office, opened and read it at the post office, as is my usual habit. The mail did not include the check that I was expecting…so what else was new on this particular day. That meant no trip to the bank around the corner. At the hardware store, I found what I thought I was looking for, bought it, and returned home. I remembered to put my extra set of keys back in the key drawer and then realized that my hardware purchase wasn’t what I needed so I needed to return to the hardware store.

The day was almost over when it came to me that I didn’t know where my keys were again.
When things go wrong, they really go wrong. I must of left them at the hardware store, or maybe
the post office. Back in the car with my extra set of keys again, I headed back to town. By now
of course, my bad day had become close to a disaster…no, it was a disaster, at least to me.
Nothing but bad news all day. I first returned to the hardware store to exchange my previous
purchase. Then I hurried to the post office which was closed by the time I got there. Without
thinking, I proceeded to walk into that part of the post office where the PO Boxes were. That
portion of the post office included a table where I had opened my mail. I spied a large
handwritten note. I grabbed it. It was a note written on the back of a piece of an envelope. It said:

“To whom it may concern, You left your car keys on this table @ 2 PM, 7/5/2013. I have given
them to the Coffee Pub directly opposite for you to pick them up”.

The immediate relief was so soothing that all of my troubles of the day took a back seat to the
thought of the kindness of a stranger toward me. The random act of kindness that took this Good
Samaritan no more than a few minutes of time, lifted a world of burdens from me even if it was
only for a moment or two. This good soul could not possibly know how important his small
random act of kindness had so changed the course of my day for good. Caring, compassion and
charity by my Good Samaritan, brought joy to a perfect stranger at a time when I really needed a
hand. As I exited the Post office I noticed the flower beds that were filled with brightly colored
blooms of many varieties. Surely they were there when I first entered the Post Office but I had
been too preoccupied to notice. Relieved by a stranger’s kindness I was freed to observe the
beauty around me. My day was transformed from self-inflicted torment over everything that had
gone wrong to a sense that allowed me to realize that all would be well. Obviously, The flower
beds didn’t appear between my first and second visit to the Post Office. They were always there.
The difference was that I was more aware of my surroundings the second time…I was not
distracted. It made me think about what other things I miss in life because I am not paying close enough attention to my surroundings. My new stranger friend was not so distracted that he/she
didn’t see my keys and think of what could be done about it to ease someone’s (my) burden.
The lesson is that your small acts of kindness to others can often change the course of another’s
life for good…and the price…very very little. Don’t get distracted! See what you can do in the
everyday to ease someone else’s burden.

Discussion Starter Suggestions:

1. In the course of any given day we run into people we do not know. We don’t know what challenges they may be facing or what their needs might be.

Turning that around, are there days that we feel defeated?

2. Do we have opportunities to be Good Samaritans?

3. What does it take to be a Good Samaritan?

          A. Caring enough to see.

          B. Compassion enough to think of how you can help.

          C. Charitably act on compassion.