Kimberlee K.

About a month ago I was walking down the aisle of a plane, avoiding eye contact with the strangers already buckled, and continually glancing at the row numbers in search of my seat.

I always like to get a window seat. I’ve found it helps with my motion sickness, not to mention gives me a pretty view and a wall to fall asleep on.

I was traveling alone, so I knew I was looking for one seat, and since I was boarding the plane a little late, I knew it was likely one of the only empty ones. But when I approached my row, I saw a little girl sitting in it. Her mom, sitting in the middle seat, immediately clocked me and unbuckled her seatbelt.

“I’m so sorry,” she said, “I know she’s in your seat, let me just shuffle us around.”

She glanced nervously at her husband and son across the aisle and then told her daughter to gather her things.

It was a short flight. She’d left the aisle seat open. I waved her off and told her I was perfectly fine sitting there.

“Really?!” she said, and the shock in her voice almost pained me.

“It’s really no problem,” I said.

The little girl leaned over and said thank you, and then spent the entirety of the flight with her head propped in her hands, staring in absolute wonder out the window.

When we landed, the mom made sure that the girl thanked me again, which I didn’t think was necessary, but when I smiled at the girl and said, “no problem,” she smiled back and asked if I wanted to see a picture of her dog.

I don’t tell this story to toot my own horn.

It was a small, small thing, one the girl might forget, and it cost me nothing.

But sometimes the small things are exactly what we are called to do. Sometimes they are all we can do. With everything going on in the world right now, we want to do the big things, we want to make the big changes, we want to say or do or find something that can solve everything.

But sometimes the biggest thing we can do for the world, the biggest thing we can do for each other, is to find the small kindnesses we can provide in our day to day lives. To give glimpses of goodness to the people we come across, so that goodness can echo and ripple and go go go.

Personally, I think I gained more than the girl did by taking the aisle seat. I got to witness the purity of a child’s wonder, and the tap tap tap she gave my arm to show me a picture of her dog made me feel seen and safe.

Maybe she went home and told her grandma about all the things she saw out the window of the plane, sharing that wonder with her, and letting it pass on and on. Maybe that mom had a stressful day, and I was able to give her a moment of respite, a kindness that she could in turn pay forward.   

The feeling is almost tangible, something you can grip in your hand, when someone does something unexpectedly kind for you. When they pay you a compliment or help you carry something or hold a door or point you in the right direction when you’re lost.  

And while it’s disheartening to realize how little faith we all have in each other, how kindness can be so completely shocking, it’s also encouraging to know how powerful that kindness can be, and how little of it can change someone’s whole day, and perhaps their whole life.

Never underestimate doing the small thing—it’s a big thing, when you think about it.