Small Gestures

This is the post from Friday that never got published....(so mind the "yesterday's")


A friend of mine who suffers from depression once told me that a very small gesture I made made a huge difference to him and helped him through a difficult period with his illness. At the time, I was very honored to think that anything I could have done would have been helpful, even if I didn't really understand how anything so small could make so much of a difference.

Yesterday i had a terribly stressful early evening. Husband was supposed to drop the car off with me after work so he could go to his softball game and i could go pick up the Dukes at preschool and and take her and my father to dinner at this dumpling place I have been wanting to try. Unfortunately, Husband had been out in the burbs all day working on a job and got stuck in hideous traffic on the way back in. No way he could reach me in time for me to pick up Miss D. Of course, I had already given him my train card so he would have it on the way home. I managed to quickly scrounge some change so I could use an exact fare on the train. It was 5:20 by the time I got on the Brown Line. (Halfway to my stop before anyone offered me a seat. Assholes!) The train is slow and keeps stopping. By the time I reach my stop it is 5:49 and I have exactly 11 mins to reach preschool before we are dinged with a late charge. As I get off the train, the sky has darkened and it starts to sprinkle. (needless to say I have no rain gear) Miraculously, I am able to waddle there with a whopping 4 mins to spare. By the time we get out, the wind has picked up and it seems to be raining harder. I have been wrestling with a very big decision since Wednesday so the additional stress (plus pregnancy hormones no doubt) is bringing me close to tears as Miss D is asking me for an umbrella and I am trying to tell her it will be an adventure to walk the 4 blocks to the train in the wind and rain when a Mom I am friendly with asks me where we are going, and when she finds out offers to give us a lift to the station. Not only that, but when I realize that i should have plunked in the fare for a transfer and I am out of change for a full fare, she bums me a quarter.

Not a big deal right? Such a small thing. Just to give us a 2 minute ride and lend me a quarter but somehow the kindness of the gesture completely calmed me down.

Miss D and I had a fine ride home and a loooong walk to the house. (Due to her high and playful spirits thankfully and not due to whining and complaining)