TheJourneyofBethB

Every day when I scroll through my social media feed I see more and more posts involving fear, hatred, and negativity.  It’s easy to get caught up in all the politics and hype, but it’s not healthy. We need to surround ourselves with positive things too. In fact, we should focus much more of our energy on positive things than negative ones. Fortunately, I’ve been on the receiving end of some incredible acts of kindness. Some, that may have even been life changing. So, forget all the doom and gloom, here are five acts of kindness I will never forget.

Alone on the Streets of Portland

Next time you see what you think might be a homeless person, and look the other way so you can avoid getting involved, remember there was once a time that I was one of them. That’s right, when I was sixteen I ran away from home and basically lived on the streets of Portland for a short time. It’s a highly personal story, and one I mostly try not to think about.

I’m embarrassed to say that I was highly intoxicated at the time. In fact, I didn’t even really know where I was. It was late October, and it was cold and raining. I didn’t have a coat, and I was sitting outside against a wall of a night club shivering. Two guys walked by and asked if they could help me. My defenses immediately went up and I told them no. They wouldn’t go away. They introduced themselves as Tom and Jerry, which made me laugh. They then showed me there IDs, and they were indeed Tom and Jerry. They offered me a safe place to sleep for the night out of the cold. For some reason, I trusted them, and naively accepted their offer. They made me a steak dinner and let me sleep alone in my own room. They didn’t try anything inappropriate. In the morning they made me breakfast, and then asked me if they could take me somewhere safe. Later that day I let them drive me back to the group home in Vancouver. Those men may have saved my life with their kindness.

From the Ashes

My family home bunt down do the ground when I was eighteen years old. I had just moved out and into my own apartment, but many of my things were still destroyed in the fire. My parents, and my younger sister, pretty much lost everything. I remember trying to help my mother dig through the ashes, where we sometimes, amazingly, found things that had survived. It was a difficult process, and I’m ashamed to admit I looked for any possible excuse to not help.

One day a woman named Phlip showed up and offered to help my mom. She was a complete stranger. She spent the next several months beside my mother, helping her in ways that I couldn’t even fathom. Apparently, many years before, Phlip had lost her own home in a fire. She knew the feeling all too well and just wanted to help. From that point on, Phlip and my mother were best friends, and it was always a vivid reminder to me that sometimes good things can rise from the ashes.

Broke at Christmas

It was Christmas 1999, and my husband and I had just separated. We owned a business together, so I was basically unemployed as well. I had to start my life all over, and I had two kids I needed to care for at the same time. I knew it going to be a lean Christmas for them, which only fueled my growing guilt. A friend of mine gave me a Christmas card about two weeks before Christmas. I opened it up and found $500 and a personal note that moved me to tears. She said she didn’t want me to pay it back, that it was a gift and she wanted me to use it for anything I needed. I wiped away my tears of gratitude, and then used it to get caught up on bills and to buy a Christmas tree and some presents for my kids. I’ll never forget that gift, or her kindness. Today, she is my best friend and mentor.

Freezing in Sturgis

It was 2015, and my first night staying at the Buffalo Chip Campground for the 75^th Annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. I was dressed in some cutoff shorts and a leather halter top, enjoying an evening rock concert outdoors, when it started to rain. Within about fifteen minutes the rain turned to hail, which I didn’t even know was possible in early August in South Dakota. Soon the temperature plummeted, and the sky was filled with lightening. The show stopped and everyone ran for cover through a couple of inches of mud.

I sat and shivered under an overhang with a bunch of other people, all of whom seemed much better prepared for rain than I was. By this time, the temperature had dropped so radically that we could actually see our breath. I was drenched, freezing cold, and unsure about what to do next. My tent was a good mile away, probably more, and by then I knew all of my belonging were probably soaked in standing water. That was when a big biker looking guy with a long scruffy beard walked by and handed me a plastic sack. “This is for you darlin’, cause you look miserable,” he said as he hurried off, undoubtedly on his way to shelter out of the storm. Curiously, I opened the bag and looked inside. It contained a brand new Sturgis Rally hoody. It still had a $54.99 price tag on it. I slipped it on and instantly felt better.

Penniless and Thousands of Miles from Home

This last June I rode my motorcycle over 7,000 miles through 19 states. I had just crossed over the Kentucky boarder when it started to rain really hard. I pulled over under an overpass to put on some rain gear. To do so,  I had to take off my handbag that I had slung over my shoulder. I set it down on the ground for a moment, and somehow managed to drive off without it! An hour and a half later I pulled over to get gas, and instantly realized what I had done! I didn’t have single penny, no credit card, and no identification. Everything, was in my handbag!

Stunned, I sat down next to a gas pump to try and figure out what to do. That was when I heard the voice of a man, with a deep East Asian accent ask me about my knife. I always ride with a large knife hooked to my chaps, and this time it was my knife from Nepal. I told the man where I got it, and he replied with great enthusiasm that he was from Nepal. I suddenly got an idea and asked him if he would buy it from me for $20, even though it was worth well over $100 because the handle and sheath were covered with semi-precious jewels, like turquoise and onyx. I explained to him my situation and basically begged him to buy it from me. He told me not to sell the knife, and then insisted on giving me $20 and filling my tank. I hate to think what may have happened to me without his kindness. I have never felt so desperate in my life, and his help gave me hope, and got me through the situation.

There have been many other situations when people have shown me tremendous kindness, but I can’t write about them all here. The next time you see a social media feed full of anger and hatred, put your device down and instead think about all the nice things that people have done for you over the years. Better yet, think of something kind you can do for someone else.