Can you see it?

Imagine you’re going to work tomorrow morning. Rush hour traffic. As you go to merge onto the freeway, a car holds back and the driver smiles and motions for you to enter the lane.

In a store, you can’t help but hear the rising, whining voice of an over-tired child. You watch as his mom crouches down to his level and smiling, she focuses her attention solely on him. Her words are soft and soothing as she hands him an apple slice from a baggie in her purse. The tyke settles down and starts happily munching his treat.

The old man lost all sense of reality after his beloved wife passed away last month. He just didn’t care anymore. About anything.

Rocking on his front porch, he is surprised when the family from next door marches up his driveway, smiling all the way. Without a word, the teenage son gets the lawnmower out of the garage and starts to mow the front yard. The husband grabs the trimmer and begins working on the bushes, while the wife tackles the weeds in the over grown gardens.

You stop for your daily caffeine fix from your favorite java joint and witness a rushed barista accidentally spilling coffee on a customer. The server apologizes profusely and offers to pay for the cleaning. The customer smiles warmly and says, “No worries”.

Then leaves an extra generous tip.

You exit the freeway and as you come down to the intersection, your light turns green. But there is an elderly woman with a walker, slowly making her way across the street. You smile at her, mentally wish her well, and as the light turns red, you relax while waiting for it to cycle to green again.

At the check-out line a frazzled woman, poorly dressed, is counting out her change and coming up short. The man behind her puts a couple of dollars on the conveyor belt and says, “Here ya go.” The thankful woman tries to get his contact info to pay him back, but he declines with a smile and the simple instruction, “When you can, just pay it forward.”

A usually active, elderly woman who lives alone in the suburbs, is nursing a broken arm. She is wondering how she is going to manage to do her grocery shopping when just getting dressed is a long, painful, arduous process. The doorbell rings and it is a couple that lives nearby. Not exactly friends, they have heard of her accident. With big smiles, the woman knows they are sincere when they ask her if there is anything they can do to help.

At the end of an especially long, stressful, tiring day, a woman gets up from the dinner table with her plate and glass. Her husband smiles lovingly at her as he takes them from her and says, “You go take a nice, relaxing bath. I got this.”