I spent the day today sitting in a doctor's waiting room...waiting.

(Yes, I'm fine. I was transportation and moral support for someone else, who is also fine)

As I waited, I watched.

Do you ever people-watch?

I was sitting in a cardiology office, so most of the people coming in

for treatment were older. Most came with someone else...either a spouse or an adult child or caregiver. Some were very quiet...subdued.

They had been dealt a lot in life that had wiped them out.

They sat and they waited for news...hoping for good but likely

anticipating bad.

Others smiled, chatted, and people-watched me and the rest of the room.

They were here for the same reason, maybe even dealt the same

lot, but they were still kicking...still fighting.

One gentleman brought in his wife. As they were waiting, he read

the one section of the paper that was next to his chair. And then he sat and waited. His wife was called back. The remainder of the newspaper was on the other side of the waiting room (where I had read it earlier that morning). I got up, retrieved he paper and handed it to him. He looked at me with a suprised look on his face as I sat back down across from him. As I started reading my book again, he asked why I had been kind to him. I replied that it sure made the world a better place.

He said that most people weren't like that...that they wouldn't have chosen to be kind. As I settled back in, I thought on this.

When we lived in Portland, I would spend a few Saturdays each year scrapbooking at a friend's house. In her bathroom, placed where you could not miss it, was a sign that read, "Be kind to others. We don't know what battles they are fighting."

I think back on this often because it's so true. Sometimes it's so easy to

ignore others...to just walk on, looking straight ahead, totally

wrapped up in what's going on in our own little box. But, oh, to take the time to look outside of the box at those around us. Just a little smile, a kind word, can do so much for someone who's having a bad day,

or week, or even year. Just that one moment might make

a bright spot in an otherwise bleak existence.

I hope that I always take the time...