Some sweet stories

I am often touched by the kindness of people. There really is so much good in the world and so many incredible people.

This experience happened on our last San Francisco adventure. The three of us (all blind) were standing in the lobby of the beautiful hotel where we stayed.   In the center was a large, gingerbread castle.  We were talking about what between the three of us we knew about this structure! We were talking quietly as the conversation went something like - I can tell there are lights, I hear a sound - must be a train going around the castle, I think it is pretty tall, etc! It was crowded and people were around all the sides of this castle. One of us mentioned, there probably is a description of this structure somewhere nearby. At this point, a man standing near us had heard our conversation and said,  There's a sign to our left, if you'd like we can walk over there and I will read you the description. We walked over and he read the history of this castle made from gingerbread ... giving us the description of how many hours it took, how much sugar was in the structure, etc, etc. As he continued to read he became more involved and his describing expanded in further detail about the beautiful castle. It was a moment of connecting with someone in their kindness that I just love. We thanked him and somehow it felt like he appreciated this gingerbread castle a little more as well.

One evening during our stay, there were protesters outside of the hotel - loud megaphone, shouting, people all over the sidewalk, etc.  As we walked outside late in the evening to take our dogs out, a police explained what was happening and encouraged us that we'd be fine to walk through them on the sidewalk with our guides. We did and as we were continuing to walk, the police officer came up to us and indicated that she had decided she would walk with us to the grass. She said they weren't being too peaceful of protesters and she became concerned that they may hurt our dogs.  She walked along with us just talking and getting to know us. It was a simple, short walk but we reflected later on her kind gesture of showing such care.

Today in Trader Joe's (yay for our first store in Utah!) a woman that was passing us in one of the super crowded aisles said kindly, My father pushing my cart has alzheimers and he loves dogs. I've explained that he can't pet your working dog however, he might because he doesn't understand. With that introduction, I just wanted to put Cricket's harness down and let him as much as he would like! He stopped only briefly but I was so touched by the kindness of this woman and her interactions with her father and in helping others understand what he was experiencing.

Oh too bad this picture doesn't show what is in our cart -- such fun!  Drinks for my office holiday party on Thursday at my house, two amaryllis about to bloom!!, peppermint cookies ... such fun!

Snow is coming down and it is beginning to look a lot like Christmas :).

Another one to add:  leaving church with Cricket today, I heard the door shut and then it was soon opened back up.  A man that was leaving had looked back and saw us, he said. He turned around to open the door for us.  Then, he took the time to walk with us down the icy steps.  Cricket had slowed down and was doing good work, but it was so nice of him!