A pit stop: Hell to Heaven

Too many highway exits with only farmland evident in either direction had passed by. My bladder insisted this one with a couple of options for restrooms was a necessary break in the trip.

Still, I almost backed out as I opened the door to the service station. Anger, yelling between co-workers, smacked me in the face. The argument had something to do with brewing tea before a shift change, but most of the exchange was indecipherable — not for lack of volume but more the speed with which words spewed out.

Still, my bladder persisted and won.

Little had changed when I came out of the restroom, but I decided to get a drink for the next leg of the trip. I grabbed one from the cooler and made my way to the register. A few feet away, I realized an elderly man was heading there, too, from the opposite direction. I slowed and stepped back to let him go ahead.

The tirade paused as one clerk rang up his road snacks. Then, the gentleman told her to add my drink to his charges.

Instinctively, I shook my head no. He persisted, acknowledging that I’d let him go ahead.

Then, the other clerk chimed in, saying, “Accept it, honey, and pass it on.”

I assured him that respect did not need to be rewarded but then smiled and promised to indeed pay his kindness forward. When he looked back at me, I saw such a twinkle in his rheumy eyes that my heart lightened. It was also impossible to miss that the atmosphere in the store was also transformed.

A simple kindness had diffused anger and replaced it with words of blessings and wishes for safe travel.

My fellow traveler reminded me that we should never underestimate the power of even the smallest kindness. His gesture certainly made multiple lives instantly better.

In my mind, I also heard another reminder, ancient yet so applicable to this time when so many seem so afraid of one another: Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.