About a month back, I’m driving back home from some local shops.

It’s a lovely day, sunny and still a little warm for autumn. As I climb a hill I notice a young man a way up the street, a gardener, strongly built, covered in the dust and grit of his work. He has a line trimmer in his hands and is working his way along the edge of someone’s lawn. It is in fact the edge on the roadside.

I’m driving up his side of the road and as I get closer, I’m maybe 20m away, I can even hear the whining cutting voice of the trimmer. Then, like a starter’s gun that actually stops people, I see him stop and stand still for no apparent reason. He’s focused on something in the distance that isn’t clear to me and my first assumption is that he’s simply taking a quick break. It’s warm remember. I’m watching the road of course unable to watch too closely. I drive on by not thinking much of it as I do. For no particular reason other than curiosity about when he’s going to start up again, I glance in the rear view mirror after I’ve passed him. I don’t know, maybe he’s hit the wall with his work and I’m curious to find out.

I see him, once I’m about 20m past him, pull the trigger of his trimmer and begin working again.

Hmmmh I think, that’s curious, really must have just needed that break.

Then I see it. I really notice the dust and debris his trimming is sending towards the road. Then I really see it.

The debris would have hit my car.
He did it for my car.
He did it for me.

Eyes back on the road but heart back at that edge trimming kindness, the traffic moves me on quickly but that moment is etched in my memory forever.

Here was a young man with seeing and a kindset at the highest level. And that’s not the kind of generalisation that is often made about his demographic. He shone a light for humanity and kindness.

It’s a different category of ‘seeing’ when you can’t actually see a person - he could only see ‘a car’ remember, he couldn’t actually see me. I really was touched.

Upon reflection, even though it was a fair way down the road that this all dawned on me, I see that I could have turned around and gone back and said something. Even though we won’t always be able to interact like that, I feel sad about that and will carry that forward as fuel to ensure that I do all I can to continue to take such opportunities going forward.

PS Oh wow, I love the fact I can pin this to pretty much the exact lawn edge this happened on! 💥🥰

Image credit: https://unsplash.com/photos/a-man-using-a-lawn-mower-to-cut-grass-xWAsrLw_1hk?utm_content=creditShareLink&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=unsplash