Get On The Kindness Bus

Day 174

Since starting this blog almost 6 months ago, I have written more cards and emails than I have in the past several years combined. This project has helped remind me of the importance of letting folks know that they are appreciated. I've written to my sons' pediatrician and the nurses at the practice thanking them for going above and beyond for us. The boy's teachers have received notes, as well as the soccer coach and other assorted very important people in their lives. I've tried hard to remember special occasions like birthdays and graduations as well as acknowledging difficult life events as well. This may be the year of the blog for me, but it is also the year of the card.

Yesterday I saw a school bus driver negotiate a busy intersection with a bus loaded with kids, I thought of someone I wish I could go back and thank, my elementary school bus driver. I remember him as a cranky old man who yelled at us constantly for misbehaving. Looking back, it must have been incredibly difficult for him to drive safely with a bunch of ill mannered children ignoring his efforts to control them. It was about 40 years ago, and I still feel guilty about my behavior.

So I did something today to try to make amends. I wrote a thank you note and addressed it “Dear Bus Driver.” It said how much I appreciate the work that school bus drivers do and that I know it is a difficult and important job. I said that I hoped that the kids on the bus behave better than I did as a child. And I included a gift card for local coffee shop.

I slipped it onto the windshield of a bus in the parking lot of the shopping plaza near my office. I can't go back and change the past, but I hope it brightened someone's day in the present.