Small kindnesses

After a slew of longish posts, this will be short and sweet...

Yesterday I drove my car to work. Not a big deal, except that I usually ride the bus. So when I went out for the third time to put more money in the meter -- at $1.25 an hour -- I looked up at the automated pay station (they call them SmartMeters) and saw a parking receipt stuck to the device.

To my surprise and pleasure, it showed there was still about 90 minutes left on the receipt -- just about what I had planned to pay for myself. So while I saved a whopping $2.00 or so, the more important thing was thinking of whomever it was that decided to give his or her free minutes.

That's the sort of thing that puts you in a good mood and makes you grateful for the small kindnesses that soften the rough edges of daily life. I've seen other unused minutes passed forward in this way and it's invariably made me glad to live in a city where people would think to do to this.

I don't think I've ever done it myself, simply because I sync my time needed and minutes paid pretty well. But yesterday's little episode was a good reminder to pay it forward. If not with a parking meter receipt, then in some other way.