On my way into work this morning a local bus driver stopped and waited to see if I would be coming onto his bus.  He had stopped several feet before the official bus stop and he waited until I was passing by. As I was walking by I waved letting him know that I wasn’t getting on.  He then asked if I was going to the green line to get on the train and if so he could drop me off since he was going in that direction.

He didn’t have to do this,  I am sure this is kinda out of their normal thing that they are supposed to be doing but he did it anyways.  I took him up on the offer it cut my walking time in half and I ended up getting to work earlier and it made for a nice start to the day.

It reminded me today that people are still good and do look after one another.  It reminds me that we can still be kind and caring for other people and it doesn’t take much to offer that kindness to someone else. Perhaps we need it for ourselves, in what I mean, to do something for somebody else.  To remind ourselves that we ourselves can be kind and that we are still good people.

These times seem strange for us here in the U.S..  There is very little that we go through or have to deal with on a large national scale.  We don’t see the devastation of war here in the states.  We don’t normally have major pandemics that upends nationally everyones daily lives.  This is the first time in 100 years that we have had a wide spread pandemic such as this spreading rapidly.  When MERS and SARS came about it didn’t affect us nearly as what it did in many other countries and now Covid-19 has reached just about every country upending many peoples daily lives.

In the last several months it has been interesting how everyone has been reacting to what is going on, what is constantly streaming on our phones through social media, to news media and everything else in-between.  Everyone reacts very differently to so much change to their daily lives.  Some people are able to handle it as it comes along while others have difficulty.   With all of the stress you notice how people react to the smallest to the biggest of things.

I try not to get disheartened by everything I see and everything that is happening around me and to try to see the good in midst of the chaos.  Not everyone can handle their emotions and the stress that is happening all the time.  I try to remember that when someone cuts me off while I am biking or at the grocery store or while out walking getting some sunshine and exercise.

So this morning I chose to see what that bus driver did for me as a small blessing. I didn’t need the ride, I walk with my luggage strolling behind me every week. I left early enough to make it to still arrive on time for work.  Instead I was able to make the first hour train to the airport with plenty of downtown to prepare myself for the day.  It gave an extra boost to my day and something extra to think about as I went about helping my passengers.  It gave that little extra positivity while working with my coworkers.

At times it seems that there is very little that I can bring to my passengers while flying.  There’s very little to no service and we spend even less time with them.  There is even less to interactions we have with our passengers which helps on whether they have a good flight or a not so good flight.  There is more stress when flying at this time and it feels as if less of what we can do to change that.

But I hope that I hope what that bus driver did for me today also affected someone else I came in contact with today.  There’s always something we can do in any time to help someone else whether big or small.

When I got off the bus and onto the platform for the train a song I haven’t sang in years came to mind.

” Have I done any good in the world today? Have I helped anyone in need? Have I cheered up the sad and made someone feel glad? If not, I have failed indeed. Has anyone’s burden been lighter today Because I was willing to share? Have the sick and the weary been helped on their way? When they needed my help was I there?”   lds.org

With love,

jess