I was sitting on the bus, heading from my future into my past, from my past into my future, watching the landscape slide by, heartsick at the thought of trying to determine where my life was going next. Thinking soberly, I was mentally and emotionally miles away from the merry crowd filling the rest of the bus, on their way to a celebration.
We stopped at a rest center. As I paced to stretch my muscles and get the blood flowing, I noticed a man walking toward the open back of a van with several boxes of peaches in his hands. A pile of more boxes in the shade under a tree marked where he'd been, selling fresh produce from his farm to the travellers.
A juicy, ripe peach suddenly seemed very appealing. I walked up to him and said, "Excuse me, but do you sell peaches individually?"
He turned away from the van where he'd been putting cartons away with two still in his hands. "You can have any one you want," he responded in a voice warm with generosity. Shifting both handles to one hand, the other hand hovered over the boxes, dove down to choose one which he swiftly and expertly turned in his gentle fingers. "This one's ripe," he said, placing it at the end within easy reach, "and this one," selecting another. He handed both to me with a smile.
"You're awesome," I said. "Thank you so much."
"You're welcome. Have a safe journey."
"You too," I said, before heading back to my bus to carry on, but with my spirits inexplicably lifted. That little incident marked the difference between total despondency and renewed cheer. There's nothing like unsolicited human kindness and generosity to warm the heart, proof that not all out there in the world are uncaring and hardhearted. I wonder if that farmer will ever know.