Witnessing an ARK

While I sometimes believe that general customer service is dead, I like to think that simple kindness and service to our fellow human beings is still alive and kicking. Unfortunately, I rarely get to witness many Acts of Random Kindness (ARK). I haven't lost hope and faith that as a society we want to be nice to one another, I just wonder at times if we know how to be of service. But this morning, I witnessed joyful service and 2 hours later, I'm still smiling about it.

A very pregnant woman got on the train and just as I was about to offer up my seat to her, an older lady jumped up before I could. But as she was getting up, a young man was trying to signal to the pregnant woman that she could have his seat. She ended up taking the seat from the older woman, but then the young man gave his seat to the older lady and he then sat next to me. All of this fuss was made for one woman who got off at the next stop. I had never seen such acts of kindness during a rush hour train ride in New York City (if you live in NYC, you know how coveted those rush hour seats are). It was a kind and comical scene of musical chairs.

While I can't be certain that the gestures made any huge difference in the woman's outlook for the day, I do know at least for that moment, she was provided an opportunity to smile and be thankful. We never know what any stranger is thinking (heck a lot of times we don't know what those close to us are thinking), but we can always give people a reason to smile and feel more valued if we practice building ARKs. What's a small, but meaningful gesture you can make today to make someone smile and feel valued?