I was inspired this week while watching an interview with Brad Formsma, author of “I Like Giving.”  A sweet, simple concept. Giving. But oh how powerful it is especially at a time when everyone has an unlimited supply of complaints about what’s wrong with this world, this country, this community. What if we added a heavy dose of goodness into the mix? Like giving to strangers for no reason. Just being kind.

Then right on cue, I got to experience it. I was flying home from a conference. What was scheduled as a 2-hour flight turned into 11 hours. We were beginning our descent to land, when we found we could not. Bad weather, and our airplane did not have enough fuel to circle around and wait for it to clear, so they diverted us to an airport 30 minutes away. We refueled and took off again with the expectation that we would be able to slip in between the string of storms moving across the area. No go. We got to the airport just as it closed completely. I heard someone say that its power had gone out. So we returned to our next-door airport for the second time.  We waited hours for the storms to pass and a new flight crew to come for our next attempt. They arrived. The storm cleared. I made it home.

Obviously, that’s not the story about giving, but it sets the context and adds the drama . . . My problem was that my cell phone battery was running low and my charger was in my checked luggage. I didn’t want to pay $30 for a new charger, so I approached an airline employee at a gate counter. She said that she couldn’t help me and suggested I ask among the passengers sitting at the gate.

Then she stepped out from her post and went to the passengers herself and asked if anyone had a charger I could borrow. One woman began looking in her purse to find hers. Meanwhile another held hers into the air – “Here you go! Use this,” she said. I charged my phone until it was time for her to board her plane and then I gave it back. I had enough juice to make it home.

I was so touched – both by the willingness of people to share their chargers, that they were eager and happy to do so. And, by the employee who went out of her way to stay with me to make sure I found a charger. She didn’t need to do that, but she did.

I was the recipient of giving, and of kindness. It feels so good. Now I look forward to an opportunity to be on the other end – to be the giver. Because truthfully, I’m too often caught up in my own little orbit and I don’t notice or respond to what’s around me. But now I’m thinking maybe I can become more aware. Maybe I can toss a little act of giving into the world and it can ripple through space and break up some of the negativity.  And I think maybe if a lot of us do it, we can replace some of the incessant complaining with smiles of appreciation.

By the way, I just got an email from the airline stating they are sorry things didn’t go as I had planned with the flight. They are giving me a $100 voucher. I appreciate that, and I’m smiling.