Tiny acts of kindness go a long long way.

I've not blogged for a while and HUGE apologies for that, but I was too busy adhering to my last blog and having a finger in every pie. Whilst coaching, working, parenting and now selling clothes, life is pretty busy and fun too, but today's blog is a reminder of how tiny acts of kindness can do so much to boost someone's emotions, make them feel great, and therefore make you feel great too.

I experienced this first hand today, and it's touched me so much that I felt compelled to write about it. It will certainly remind me to think about how I too, can do tiny acts of kindness to make someone else's life a hell of a lot better.

We were on our way to a Cheerleading Competition, and the venue was about a 15 minute drive from home. We set off, on time (usually I'm early for everything, so I was panicking a bit here) and drove down the sliproad onto the M25 for one junction. An excited cheerleader in the backseat, having practiced her cheer with her school friends numerous times, wearing the team Tshirt and saving her snacks.

We hit traffic, and we hit it bad. Trying to remain calm, we were only 15 minutes from the venue after all, and knowing we were the last team to cheer we crawled along the road, less than 10 miles per hour. As we were reaching the exit to the motorway we got the call to say the girls were on next. We had no hope of getting there and my daughter Molly (and I) was devastated.  An hour and 20 minutes later, we decided against going to the venue but rather treated the girls to a play in the Arcades at the Hollywood bowl. We were texting our Cheerleading friends and posting on Facebook to find out how they did.  Being brilliant Cheerleaders, they won.
I received a text from one friend saying that Molly would still get her medal (after all the hard work is done in the classes not on the final) and we posted on Facebook where we were in case anyone wanted to join us.

Of course after a big event like that, the girls get tired and most went home, but then I saw coming through the double doors of the bowling alley one of my daughters' friends and her Mum. They had purposely come to find us to give my daughter her medal, as her friend's mum said "They'll all have them at school tomorrow, Molly should have hers".
I cried. Molly was really touched, They couldn't stay and play with us as they had to be off. It was a small thing, and really we were at a venue on their way home, but the thoughtfulness and kindness of thinking of Molly and how she would feel tomorrow without her medal, made them want to bring it to her.

If more and more people behaved like this, it would certainly bring back some of the community spirit, sense of belonging and warm heartedness to many, many more people. And I for one, will look to behave like this at every single opportunity I have.