Coffee with Pure Kindness

Written by: Olivia H.

Last week, I was lucky enough to go to London, where I spent the first few years of my life. On our last day in the city, my family and I all went out for breakfast. A few doors down from the café toward which we were headed, I saw a man, wrapped up in a sleeping bag, with a cardboard sign next to him. It read PLEASE DONATE A COFFEE with a smiley face at the end, and I knew that my order would be changing from one coffee to two. Just as we were turning into the shop, a couple of little flashes of white scooted past me and over to the man. Two little boys, both with bright white hair, pushed a blue cup onto the stoop. The man smiled, the toddler sized boy hid behind the older one, and the two scurried away. I still picked up an extra coffee and scone for the man, and he still smiled when I gave them to him. He said he’d give it to a friend, or maybe eat it later. As I walked away, though, I surprised myself, thinking more about the two little boys than of anyone else.

Kindness always inspires. But there is something about kids, and generosity coming from their tiny palms, that inspires in a completely different way. It reminds us that giving isn’t always returning a favor or doing something nice because of hard times that you went through in the past.  It’s much simpler—a kindness in it’s purest form, unembellished and incredibly powerful.