Random acts of kindness

Recently, I had a busy weekend providing Covid Compliance services at the London Film Festival.

During a couple of hours of down time I decided to take a good long walk around the streets of London and was reminded of a really rubbish film I once watched where the tagline was “Look up”. When I watched the film I thought that simply meant look up to the sky but stomping around London I realised, it was to look up from your phone and see what is going on around you.

I stopped for 10 minutes on London bridge and just watched people (I know that makes me sound a bit weird, I promise you I am not!). There were many (nearly all actually) who were walking with the neck hunched over staring at their phones and tapping out messages, watching videos and scrolling through social media and then there were those like me. 

Looking up as if there was an amazing world to see.

By looking up, I saw some random acts of kindness. No grand gesture stuff, just little things that make a difference. There was a person walking up the steep steps to London bridge with a large case and a couple of 20 something year old girls were on their way down the stairs and offered to carry it up, there was a group of mates trying to get a selfie and a married couple stopped and offered to take the picture and they were all laughing and joking together whilst the chap was getting them to do silly poses, a gentleman was wiping seats dry after rainfall for people to sit down. 

All relatively small acts and something many would say should be the minimum that we do as decent humans but they all touched my heart and whilst standing on that bridge, watching the world go by I got to thinking about what I can do each day to be that little bit kinder. Is it picking up lunch for colleagues who are too busy to stop? Sending a friend a message to let them know that I am thinking about them? Thank someone properly for what they have done instead of just giving a quick thanks in passing? 

Although I have been doing what I do now for over 20 years, I still have much to learn from looking up and seeing the bigger picture and remembering just how important it is to be in the moment.

So, today is the day that I write stuff down. Make sense of what I am not seeing and hearing because I am too task focussed on what is immediately in front of me instead of looking up and seeing so much more.