A surprise gift of kindness
In this busy and busting world where survival seems like everyday focus, we seem to forget that kindness do exist in this world and there are people out there who wake up and choose to do something nice for anyone and everyone everyday.
I have no clue how numb I have become to my surrounding until one day I came home and saw an Asian old man sweeping the front of my drive way; it has lot of fallen leaves on it. I was confused for a moment, trying to remember whether this was the day that my gardener was suppose to show up but he didn’t look like my gardener (who happens to also be an Asian). Then I realized this was the same gentleman who I saw was sweeping my neighbor (a Caucasian family) across street’s driveway a couple weeks ago. Since I have been traveling for business in the past couple months, I remembered I thought to myself last time I saw him thinking “wow, I didn’t know my neighbor had sold their house while I was gone!” But then I thought, “Why is he sweeping my driveway then?”
Since my driveway was a mess and I was so grateful that he had swept it clean for me, I decided to walk over and thank him anyway. As I was approaching him, an unknown fear and hesitation came over me, but I stuck to my gun and yelled out for him as he walked back toward his own house. I greeted him in English but he doesn’t seem to speak English, he started replied to me in Chinese and Taiwanese. Fortunately, I knew both, so naturally I responded back to him in both Chinese and Taiwanese. He was surprised, but happy that I can speak his language. I thanked him profusely with a bit of embarrassment as to how I had let the leaves go in front of my house. He told me don’t worry about it, he is actually visiting his son and he is seeking opportunity to exercise. He saw all those fallen leaves and decided that this is his opportunity to get the exercise he want and gather all the fallen leaves together in time for the scheduled lawn pickup for the street.
I chatted with this sweet happy gentleman for a while. I found out that his name is Mr. Lee. His son has been living across from me for over 10 years; they are from a different town in Taiwan where I was born; he and his wife are here visiting the grandkids; it will be a short visit because he can’t get used to American living… It’s amazing that I have also been in this neighborhood for over 10 years, but yet I have never knew this family; I have not even talk to anyone in this family until now. I had no clue how indifferent I have become until this gentleman woke me up. Without his simple kindness, I probably would have live here another 10 years without even thought of reaching my hands out to my neighbors.
I was very grateful for the lesson Mr. Lee taught me. I brought some cookies and stopped by Mr. Lee’s house to formally thank him. He was not home. I got to visit with his son for the first time and told him his dad’s kindness. His son was just as amazed at what his dad did as I was. We got to stop and connect as neighbor for the first time.
Mr. Lee’s amazing kindness just continues to fill my heart. While he is still around, he seems very determined to keep our street cleaned. The next morning, I found him not only swept the sidewalk in front of my house, he actually swept the leaves out of my whole front yard! Then the next week, I found him continued working his way down the street; covering and sweeping even more houses. Now, not only my house, but my neighbor’s house (an Indian family) and my neighbor’s neighbor’ house (a Caucasian family)… What a loving sweet old man!!!