Fresh Kindness

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).

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 ) 

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!!!

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!!!)

Big Apple circus clown act - he looked through that window at juuuust the wrong moment.  :)

CIRCUS KISS!!!!

Please no pee pee.

Could the sign BE any more clear??  :)