In Kristin Hannah’s new book, The Four Winds, she writes about a horrific time in America’s history: the Great Depression and the drought-stricken Great Plains described as the Dust Bowl.

Many of the characters in The Four Winds survive because of the love and kindness of family and strangers. In a story steeped in significant loss, Ms. Hannah deftly weaved in moments of love for readers to grab hold of; I know I did.

Love is what remains when everything else is gone. It’s an inspiring sentence I needed to hear.

Inspiration Lost

I haven’t posted in almost three months. It’s not that I stopped reading; I lost my inspiration, and it’s taken me this long to find it.

It’s been a tumultuous year filled with with anger, loss, judgement and pain. For most of 2020 and the beginning of 2021, I didn’t leave the house. The outside world hasn’t looked loving and kind to me in a long time. Honestly, I’ve stopped watching the news and that helps.

But now, with my vaccination card in my wallet, I am venturing out and what I’ve found has renewed my spirit.

Strangers Helping Strangers

I stood in line (with other masked customers) at TJ Maxx and the woman in front of me started talking to the man in front of her. She commented on the pineapple corer in his cart. “I’ve always wanted one of those.”

He held it up in the air with a smile. “I know exactly where they are. I’ll go get you one.”

The woman gratefully volunteered to hold his place in line, and the guy went to the way back of the store and came back with the item.

Strangers helping strangers. Fascinating.

Officer Friendly

My mom and I were on a road trip and having problems with the key fob for her car. Without it working properly, we wouldn’t be able to restart the engine. We sat in the CVS parking lot with new batteries. Once the small complicated piece of electronic equipment lay in pieces in my lap, I realized we needed a scissor to free the batteries from the package. Just as a police officer squeezed by our car, I asked my mom to go into CVS for scissors. Instead, she screamed out to him for help.

I chastised her for stopping him; surely, he had more important things to do. But no. With a “what can I help you ladies with?” he took charge. He took the battery package into the store and came back with it open, plus two cold bottles of water. Then he waited until he knew for sure I could reassemble the key fob. It’s not as easy as the diagram in the manual suggests and yes, he had to snap it back together for me.

Thank you, Officer Friendly, for that and everything you do.

Writers Helping Writers

A friend put me in touch with a published writer, and I was hesitant to call. Why would this person want to talk to me? When I finally did and we spoke for over an hour, I learned that there are people out there, again strangers, who don’t mind helping just for the sake of helping.

We’ve had several conversations since. She read one of my chapters, talked me through some revisions and despite that, I still feel guilty taking up her time.

And then a writer friend of mine suggested that it’s no different from the help I give her. I guess it’s easier for me to offer help than to accept it.

Lesson learned.

Small Gesture – Huge Kindness

Now, in the past week, my family reminded me that tiny gestures of kindness outweigh any gift they could ever buy.

My husband stuck his head in my office at around 11:00 in the morning, asking me if I had anything to drink yet. He knew I usually have a glass of water first thing in the morning, noticed my glass was in the same place it was the evening before, and took the time to call my attention to the fact that I had not yet hydrated. Such a slight gesture, yet a tremendous amount of love thrown my way.

Follow Your Heart 

A teacher passed away from covid-related complications at my children’s school and the school set up an online donation page for the teacher’s family. Neither of my children had this teacher. I’d never met him, and I didn’t feel compelled to donate. When I spoke about it with my son, who graduated last year, he told me he made a donation. I asked him if he had, in fact, had a class with that teacher. His reply: “No, Mom. But I walked by him every day in the halls for years, it felt like the right thing to do.”

And it was.

Do Onto Others…

My seventeen-year-old daughter came home from a party the other night and told me she found a very drunk girl she didn’t know in the bathroom. The girl (a freshman by the way) was wobbly and lost and my daughter helped her find her friends and made sure she was not alone. After all, my daughter would want someone to do the same for her.

I’m realizing that kindness and love thread seamlessly into the fabric of our messy world. I just need to open my eyes, take notice, and be grateful.

Thank you, Kristin Hannah, this is one great line.

Have you been the recipient of a random act of kindness? Scroll down and comment, I’d love to hear about it!

If you’d like to read more about The Four Winds, click here.

If you’d like to read about me, and why I started this blog, click here.by