Ryan has been working non-stop on the house to get it ready for this weekend. It's crunch time and in an effort to help I found myself scurrying around after work to retrieve my lost cell phone, then grab dinner and head to the house to help him. We decided to order pizza for the 2nd time in 3 days because it's the quickest and most convenient choice. I felt bad that Ryan has been spending countless hours laboring away, continually ordering pizza and then eating leftovers until he needed to order pizza again. So, I decided to pick up some eggrolls for him from our favorite chinese restaurant as a little pick me up surprise.
In fact, I too needed a bit of a pick me up. I could feel myself taking in deep breaths and then holding my breath for as long as I could - the telltale sign that I am stressed. I walked in and ordered the eggrolls and Simon, the owner, greeted me and told me to sit down. "Would you like some tea?" he said. His simple gesture of kindness threw me off - I'm so used to ordering food, having the cashier swipe my credit card, perhaps exchanging pleasantries in an incredibly anonymous fashion and then waiting for whatever I had ordered. "I would really love some tea," I replied.
I sat down and in just a moment Simon came out with a teapot, a teacup and a cup of wonton noodle soup. My stomach has really not been feeling so hot the past few days and hot soup was exactly the thing I needed, so comforting and warm. Simon made a joke about leaving a newspaper written in Chinese for me to read and relax while I waited for my eggrolls. I sipped tea and enjoyed my soup. I stopped holding my breath and started breathing again. What a wonderful gesture of kindness. I left feeling much lighter, with my stomach less in knots. I gave Ryan his eggrolls and sometime around 2am he enjoyed them. I always seem to forget the impact of kindness, perhaps because I hardly ever make an effort to be kind. Thanks Simon for the soup and for the reminder.
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