The kindness of strangers

Less than a minute out the door this morning, I dropped my camera bag. Somehow I confused the order of laptop and camera bags on my shoulder. I removed the laptop thinking it was first to be removed and crash, the camera bag hit the asphalt.

It didn't take a rocket scientist to work out my street zoom was stuffed but the camera body and bigger zoom had survived.

And thus began an amazing day where strangers have humbled me with kindness. My insurance company made my claim urgent because of next weeks surgery. Later in the afternoon the camera shop wrote a damage report and immediately faxed it to Auckland (the other end of the country). After a few more calls I left things knowing I had a good chance of getting a replacement lens on Monday.

Off I trotted to retrieve those knives of mine from my butcher. He apologised for not having them ready. Nevermind, he'd do them now if I could wait a few minutes. Nice chap, he was happy for me to blip him (I borrowed the work lens).

My phone went and the young woman in Auckland who was handling my insurance claim just wanted to let me know I could pick up a new lens anytime I wanted from my camera shop. She had literally minutes left of her work day and in the previous half hour had made it all happen to make my life easier.

I went to pay for the sharpened knives (done with care and skill), "No, we've taken longer than we said we would. Just take them, it was a pleasure to do them".

I am humbled. I am grateful. It's been a long day with plenty of things on my 'to do list' other than additional insurance claims. I've learned again the lesson to be kind to others, to smile at strangers, let someone else go before me, be gracious even when I don't think I should be. I've learned this again because others have been kind to me. I've sure it won't be the last time I have to learn this.

I will try and comment as I can over the next few days.

And yes, I do have a new lens :-)