You Never Know

"No act of kindness, no matter how small,is ever wasted."
- Aesop

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Howard was a poor student who was forced to sell goods door to door in order to put himself through school. One day while selling goods, Howard felt especially fatigued, tired and hungry. He thought if he could get something to eat, he would then have enough energy to complete his sales route for the day. The problem was Howard only had one dime in his pocket. Howard decided that he would politely ask his next sales prospect for some food. After knocking on the door, Howard was greeted by a lovely young woman, immediately he lost his nerve to ask for food.

Instead of asking for food, Howard asked for a glass of water. The woman recognizing Howard’s condition bought him a tall glass of milk instead. Howard gratefully accepted the milk and asked the woman, "How much do I owe you?"

The woman responded, "You don't owe me anything. My mother taught us to never to accept pay for a kindness." Howard replied, "Then I thank you from my heart." After leaving the house, Howard felt a renewed sense of energy, both physically and spiritually. For earlier, Howard had thought about giving up and quitting school.

Years later, the young woman became seriously ill. The doctors in her home town, never having seen such a case before, referred her to hospital specialists in a large metropolitan area. After an initial consultation, hospital doctors requested that Dr. Howard Kelly review the patient’s records and case. After reviewing the patient’s records, Dr. Kelly recognized the name and home town of the patient. He thought to himself, could this really be the lady that was so kind to me when I was down and out and ready to quit school. When Dr. Kelly walked into the patient’s room, he knew it was her. After leaving the patient’s room, Dr. Kelly decided that this case would receive his special attention. He was determined that this woman would live.

Dr. Kelly did give special attention to the case and after an arduous battle, the woman recovered. Dr. Kelly demanded that the business office send the woman’s bill to him to for approval. After reviewing the bill, Dr. Kelley wrote a small note on the bill and requested that the bill be hand-delivered to the patient. Upon receiving the bill, the woman opened it with trepidation. Because of her long hospital stay, she feared she would never have the means to pay the bill. After quickly scanning the bill, her eyes were drawn to a hand written note signed by Dr. Howard Kelly. The note read: "PAID IN FULL WITH ONE GLASS OF MILK..."

What random act of kindness will you engage in today? All too often, we fail to understand the impact that a smile can be to a stranger, what some spare change can mean to the needy, or how a helping hand can uplift someone requiring assistance. Simple, random acts of kindness can have a significant impact in the lives of others. Most often you will never know the degree of impact. In the case of the young woman, unbeknownst to her, her kindness had a significant impact on Dr. Kelley’s life and hers. Why don’t we engage in random acts of kindness more often? Because we get so caught up in our own world that we fail to recognize when and where kindness should be extended, or we believe that we just don’t have time to extend it.

When you extend kindness with no expectation of something in return, you invoke the power of the reciprocity principle. Simply put, “you get what you give.” When you extend kindness, kindness will be extended to you. The principle of reciprocity is not time bound. It may take years for an act of kindness to return to you. It will return, believe me! Remember, a glass of milk helped save a women’s life.

I urge you to be more cognizant of those around you. For if you do, you will see plenty of people who can benefit from a kind word or deed, and ultimately, the world will be a much kinder place to live.

Dr. Howard Kelly was a distinguished physician who, in 1895, founded the Johns Hopkins Division of Gynecologic Oncology at Johns Hopkins University

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Its your life: Live it, Love it & Celebrate it!
MJD