Kindness matters

Happiness comes in different shapes and forms. A new cell phone makes us happy, so does a long-overdue vacation or a good movie. But happiness can come from very simple things, too, things that do not cost us any money at all.

For instance, we feel happy when someone lends a helping hand, appreciates our work, utters a kind word, or makes us feel loved, wanted and cared for.

I don't know if it's because I have spent almost 9 years in the West, but every time I visit my home country, I feel that people there are not kind or helpful enough. No man ever opened a door for me in my own country!

Here, I always see men doing it. Women do, too. I almost always hold the door open for the person behind me. When on a crowded bus or train, I get up and give my seat to someone who needs it - an elderly woman, an expectant mother or a disabled person. And I am not the only person who does this, of course. Others do, too. Random people show care in random places... and it makes our day, it really does, because "kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see!"

Most of the time, kindness does not cost anything. So let's try to be kind toward each other as much as we can, even if and when people do not acknowledge our acts of kindness.

Try to think of a time when someone was very kind toward you. How did it make you feel? I remember a time when I was stuck in the rain one evening with three friends. There was no public transportation available, and we had no cell phone with us. A taxi driver stopped and offered to give us a ride. He dropped us off at our dormitory and drove away without accepting any fare. I do not remember the man's name or face anymore, but his gesture of kindness is what I still remember even after 12 long years, and I always will.