The party was just “meh”, I never really liked parties much. My date, on the other hand, was stellar! I asked if she wanted to have a smoke on the patio.
She sat on my lap and the smoke from her Clove cigarette wafted around us like some sort of magic potion. I always loved the smell of those things, and for her, it was a perfectly matched scent. Exotic, mysterious, fun and dangerous! My new girlfriend was all of those things. I was falling in love with her.
I looked up at her and as our eyes met, she inhaled her little brown clove scented demon, “wow, she is so hot! How am I this lucky?”
Right then, the look in her eyes changed to a look I had never seen before.
She was scared… Like really scared!
I gave her a puzzled “whats up” look, pushing my eyebrows down and tilting my head.
She leaned in and whispered in my ear “you see that guy that just walked in? He was my ex boyfriend a long time ago. He just saw us”
I peered into the house from our patio seat. He wasn’t hard to find, he was staring right at me!
The moment he realized I saw him, he started towards me in one of those crazy “T2 walks”. You know, hands flat to the side, arms swinging back and forth to help you go faster? Yeah, that super scary “half-run” thing that I’m pretty sure only psychos use.
Thankfully for me, at the time, I was a little stoned, so my old friend “fear”, wasn’t in charge of my mind. Love was running planet Mike at the moment.
Crystal went to get up, but I kept a hold on her and let her know she was safe to sit down and relax. I was going to deal with this with my mind and heart. Not my fists. (probably better anyhow, I’m a lover, not a fighter).
The young man approached with a visible amount of excitement in his face.
OK, maybe I should be a little more afraid?
“Do you know who I am?” he asked, dead locked on my eyes. I think he actually expected that I should know him!
“Crystal just mentioned that you dated some time back?” I replied. The look in his eyes shifted as I was speaking and I realized, there’s more to this story.
Oh shit, maybe much more afraid?
“Yes, but more than that. I was your paperboy when you lived in Springfield apartments. Do you remember that?” he asked.
At this point I realized the high energy from this kid wasn’t violent energy! It was something else.
Then it clicked in my mind.
“Oh yeah!” I replied … “I remember you! You were super cool man”
He looked at me and I could see him trying to hold back some tears now.
“You were the nicest person I ever met. Do you remember inviting me in for some soup when I came to collect from you?”
Back then, paper boys had to go door to door, collecting cash and checks for newspaper deliveries.
I actually did remember him and this moment in great detail! I remembered him at the front door. He was obviously having a really shitty day, and I thought “this kid needs a damn break”. So I invited him into my house, fed him, paid him and gave him a nice tip. I remember even showing him my pet lizard, who bit my lip while I was showing him off! That sucked and he got to see it all. We cracked up laughing 
He continued speaking, breaking through my little trip down memory lane.
“Really, no one had ever been that nice to me. I had a rough home life and what you did was the kindest thing anyone has ever done for me” He was super choked up now thinking about it.
I replied “I remember. You just needed some love brother and I was grateful for you. Still am. I’m sorry you had such a hard time.”
He felt the truth in what I was saying and the love in my heart I held for him.
He spoke one last time… “I saw you sitting here and just wanted to say thank you. I hoped I’d run into you some day”. Turning up towards Crystal who was still on my lap he said “I’m sorry Crystal.”
He then turned and walked away.
“Wo! That was crazy!” I said to Crystal.
She leaned in and whispered to me again. “He wasn’t very nice to me. He was super abusive and not a good guy”
I was flooded with the Karmic loop of this moment and how the Universe unfolds for me and my loves.
What if I had never invited him into my house?
What if he had never seen what kindness looked like?
How would he have been different to the woman who was soon to be my wife? Would he have really hurt her?
I’ve told this story at two events in the last decade when discussions come up around “random acts of kindness”.
You hear a lot about “paying it forward”, but unless you are watching some movie, you never get to see the whole picture.
Not everyone is able to get the blessing of witnessing just one result of an act of kindness.
I’ve been blessed to have many. But this was the most powerful and directly affected my entire future. My wife could have carried some crazy scars if this kid wasn’t impacted by my act of kindness.
So who was I being kind to? Him? My wife? Our daughter? I was being kind to all of them, all of US.
Before this, I had been asking to see the circle of energy.
I asked to bear witness to the miracles that unfold in front of me.
I ask to be the tool of the universe and God.
I ask and surrender. Doing things that sound crazy to most people.
If you want to experience things like this, all you have to do is ask for them to be revealed and surrender all fear.