The Right Thing Without A Thought

I took my dog Misty to the vet today for her yearly check up and shots. While we were waiting I exchanged waves with little boy about two who was there with his mother, his grandmother and his dog whom the mom said had a "boo-boo." He couldn't talk much, but pointed to his dog and said "doggie" and pointed to my dog and said "more doggie."

When Misty and I came out of the exam room the boy’s mom was walking out of another room, but she was alone, and sobbing very loudly. At a vet’s office, there is only one reason someone would be crying with such profound grief. She scooped up her son off the bench and ran outside. There were three other people in the waiting room besides me and the staff. I thought to myself that I should do something, say something. My dog was tugging hard on her leash, anxious to be done with her ordeal at the vet. As my mind was racing and the room was in an awkward silence, one of the waiting customers, a woman with her beagle in tow, walked past the rest of us, went outside and embraced the sobbing woman.

I can write every day about my acts of kindness, and when the year is up, I can almost guarantee I won’t be able to do what she did. I’m not sure why, but hugging a total stranger is so outside my comfort zone that I don’t think I can stretch that far. But today I was grateful that while I was thinking hard about the right thing to do, someone was able to do it without thinking at all.