I usually think of kindness as something that is GIVEN, as
in, something I give to another person. Yet
when you really look at it, there is obviously always a RECEIVER, too. The thing of it is, maybe we (I??)
sometimes overlook being the RECIPIENT of kindness.
But recently my partner David and I were the recipients of
an amazing act of kindness that hit us smack dab in the face. Here’s what happened:
David and I recently visited New York City (from Washington DC).
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| David in NYC,"plugging in" some huge Christmas tree lights :) |
We were walking around the streets of NYC and I was thrilled to see a FRESH store. I love Fresh
products and had never seen a whole store chock full of them. (Here is a link to Fresh, check it out! Fresh )
We popped
into the store and an employee named Ray Joseph was quick to greet us. He
was very friendly, polite, and the more he worked with us, we realized that he
was down-right FUN. He showed us around the store, answered any questions
we had, and gave us hand treatments. Ahhhhh. He even convinced David
to scrub and lotion his hands, and David hates hand lotion! :)
(Thanks Ray, after we left your store David was quite proud of his
smooth, soft hands all afternoon.)
Every
December David usually sneaks away to Sephora to buy me a little something
(most often a Sugar lip balm!). You should have seen David's eyes when
met with a whole STORE of Fresh brand products to choose from - he was
overwhelmed with a capital O. I excused myself and went outside to let
David purchase in secret (with Ray's help!).
We were
really happy with our experience at Fresh on Bleecker Street. But it only
gets better... (Well, first it gets worse, then it gets better...)
David
carried the pretty Fresh bag around as we walked, and after a while he hooked
it over the camera bag to make it easier to manage. We walked and walked
and ended up at mMuseumm (which, if you haven't been to, you must go. I
love it. This was our second visit. Learn about it here )
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| David at Mmuseumm - it is super cool. |
We left mMuseumm to walk to the subway, and when David was at the top of
the subway stairs crowded with loads of people, David realized the Fresh bag
was G-O-N-E.
We
quickly retraced our steps to see if we could find the missing bag, but it was
nowhere to be found. mMuseumm was closed but David got the phone number
of the curator from the tenants next door and called him while I tweeted to
mMuseumm asking if they found the bag. (Do you SEE how desperate we were?
Running, calling, tweeting...) Sadly, we never found the bag.
David
called the Fresh store to ask Ray if he was working the next day. We were
going to go back to Fresh and repurchase the stuff and wanted to make sure that
if he was on commission, Ray got credit for our second purchase (of the same stuff).
But do you know what he did?? RAY TOLD US TO COME ON BACK, HE WOULD
HAVE THE PRODUCTS WAITING FOR US!
Seriously!!!!
I mean, things like that don’t happen in KANSAS, let alone New York City!!!
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David, KIND RAY, and me at Fresh. David is holding the replacement bag tightly!!
THANKS RAY!!!! |
We went
back the next day and Ray greeted us with a huge grin and a bag with all of the
products in it. Free. He just REPLACED
it all! He said, "You are guests in my city". Is that not
the sweetest, most KIND thing???????????? We tried to tip him and he
wouldn't even take that.
So there
you have it. Ray is a KINDNESS ACTIVIST. He showered kindness on
us, and it made us so very happy. We will most certainly pop in again the
next time we come to NYC and Ray will be the reason. (And don’t
tell Ray, but David has “bake cookies and mail them to Ray” on his to do list…)
THANKS
RAY. We really appreciate your kindness. It was sorta like a Festivus
Miracle. And it reminded me how wonderful it is to be the recipient of
kindness.
(Now here are a couple of bonus NYC photos to start this project out right!!!)
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| Big Apple circus clown act - he looked through that window at juuuust the wrong moment. :) |
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| CIRCUS KISS!!!! |
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| Please no pee pee. |
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| Could the sign BE any more clear?? :) |
