Today is a bit of a different piece, it is still relevant to my life and it is still relevant to whoever is reading this. But I am not so much talking about something that happened but rather asking you to do something.
Today like always, I get on the tube, Central Line during rush hour is anyone’s worst nightmare, and if I’m being totally honest it makes you question what TFL are doing if you can only ever let one person on per carriage, per train, at one station. Yes it is sometimes that busy. But today, like always, I expected it.
Today though was different, it was still jam-packed, humans squashed and in a backwards kind of way, organised into these carriages, unable to move. There is enough room for one person to get on. Everyone on the platform are vultures for this one cramped, pressed-up-against-a-dirty-glass-door-for-the-next-20-minutes-of-their-lives place. I am the lucky winner of that place.
I start my journey.
A lady tapped me on the shoulder, and as always I think she wants to get out or I’m not giving her enough room. I have already had a stressful journey up until this point, so I get prepared to give some angry ‘I cannot move any more than I already have’ response. I was wrong.
I was so wrong. With half a smile on her face, she says to me my purse is hanging out. It was a simple kind gesture and i I was prepared to bite her head off. In this cramped little container hundreds of feet underground, she took the time to tell me that my purse was hanging out of my bag, and I ought to be careful.
Today, I witnessed kindness in an unexpected way. Not in the way where people are letting other people onto the tube, no, that would never happen, we’re in London everything is a rat race, we must get from A-B-C NOW, NOW I SAID, LET ME ON THAT TRAIN!
But taking a step back you notice little things, people holding onto strangers to make sure they get on that train. People angling themselves so that the little lady who is at least 3 foot smaller isn’t too crushed. A stranger who is kindly letting you know your purse is hanging out. In acts like the three I just described maybe are of no benefit to you, but a benefit for someone else.
Today I saw a kindness in all of this mess.
So today, I am asking, be kind. Wait, breathe and be kind. Help someone, it can be the simplest thing in the world. I can guarantee it’ll probably make their day and your day that tiny bit better. And to the lady on the train, thank you. You have changed my day, and I hope you are aware that this post is for you and the spring in my step is because of you.

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