Once upon a time, a lady who depended on public transportation to get to work, left her house about 9 minutes later than usual. As she had good reason, she made peace with her delay and hoped for the best. And so, with backpack on and plastic bags in each hand, she exited her home.
One bag held extra items for the day including her lunch and snacks. The other two bags held the trash and plastic containers for recycling. Dropping off the latter bags, she unlocked the front gate, walked through, and locked it behind her.
Given the fact that the bus stop was about a seven minute walk from where she lived, and it was a cold Fall morning, and she had headed out later than usual, she began to speed walk. As she walked, she put on her headphones, downloaded the latest episode of a podcast, and pressed play to listen an already downloaded episode of another frequently listened to podcast.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a bus driver exiting a store. She had just passed his off schedule bus parked near the sidewalk she was currently traveling on. Suddenly, and very much to her surprise, the bus driver called out to her.
"Good morning! Come on, I'll give you a ride."
She stopped in her tracks, podcast still playing in her ears, unsure if she had heard him correctly.
"Really?!" She asked, all the while fumbling to turn off the recording.
She missed some of his answer, but caught up as he said, "You're going to the Junction, right?"
"Yes!" She exclaimed in awe of this unexpected gift of kindness and generosity. "Yes! Thank you so much!"
She quickly got on the bus and sat down. Then she changed her mind and went to stand next to the glass casing enclosing the bus driver. The combination of the glass and the volume of the driver made it difficult to truly engage in conversation. But she asked him if he was just starting or ending his shift.
"Starting," he said. "I wish I was finishing."
"Well, I hope this turns out to be a truly wonderful shift for you," she replied still tickled at being given a lift to the train station.
She watched as the bus driver passed the stop she would have been waiting at, and recognized the lone man waiting for the bus-- a bus which was probably still 15 to 20 minutes away.
She watched as the bus driver efficiently navigated the street path next to the sidewalk path she would walk on occasion to get to the subway station--about a 30 to 45 minute walk.
Finally, the bus driver pulled over to let her off. She thanked him. She thanked him with heartfelt gratitude. She thanked him for making her "heart beam at such unexpected kindness."
He smiled, saying, "Anytime" and wished her a good day.
Still beaming, the lady made her way to the train station, got on her train and made it to work at what would be her normal arrival time had she not left the house later than usual.
When she got to work, she thought, 'What a marvelous start to the week! What a marvelous start to a Monday!'