A City Street Stopped for Kindness

Yesterday, I was in New York City with my family. We were sitting outside, enjoying the evening and a great meal together. It was one of those perfect weather days - not too hot, not too cool. Maybe because it had been raining for the past week, everyone around us just seemed a little more relaxed, a little more present.

There was this quiet sense of appreciation in the air. You could tell people were soaking it in. It felt like a reminder that nothing lasts forever - not the rain, not the sunshine. So when something good comes along, you take a moment to enjoy it.

As we were sitting there talking and laughing, my daughter suddenly said, “Oh Mom, I forgot to tell you something.”

She had been having coffee a few days earlier when she saw a man crossing the street who suddenly lost his balance and fell. Without even thinking, she ran toward him. Two other people did the same. They stopped traffic, helped him up, and walked him across the street to safety.

She said it was one of those strange but beautiful moments where everything just paused.

Some people stopped their cars, others set down their phones, but everyone lifted their eyes – and opened their hearts. No one was rushing. Everyone simply showed up, fully present, for someone who needed a hand.

And then, just like that, life picked back up again. The city sounds returned, people moved on, traffic flowed. But something felt a little different afterward. There was a lightness, a kind of shared moment that quietly lingered.

It reminded me how sometimes we forget that people are good. We just don’t usually see it in the headlines on the TV and on our phones. But when we lift our eyes and open our hearts to the world around us, we can see it. I like to say “when you focus on the good, the good comes into focus.”

If we let the noise of the world tell us who we are or what the world is like, it can feel heavy and discouraging. But we don’t have to carry all of that. We get to create peace in our own hearts - and when we do, we’re more able to see the good, to be part of it, and to pass it on.

Sometimes the world really does stop for a moment. And in that space, kindness shows up.