Be Kind

Maybe you’ve seen the meme on Facebook, like I have, with the words, “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle you know nothing about.” It certainly resonates in a lot of circumstances, including infertility. A few weeks ago at work, I witnessed the opposite in action. A co-worker, who had worked in our facility when I first started and was subsequently laid-off when funding took a nose dive, has come back to work with us again. She and I were friends and I know from before, she struggled to get pregnant with her son due to severe endometriosis. She had wanted more children, but one was all she was able to have, due to her diagnosis. We had been talking a few days before the scene I’m about to describe and she shared with me sad news about her marriage. The morning of the incident, we walked in to work together and I could tell she was struggling with the things that were happening in her personal life. She really looked like she could use a hug. I bumped into her at lunch but before I could say hi, the following transpired. She took her trash to the large trash can and dropped it in. The site administrator screeched vehemently, “That is not a trash can! It only has two signs on it saying it is only for recycling and I just sent an email about it. You need to get the tongs and fish it out.” My startled friend grabbed some napkins and fished her trash out of the recycling trash can and disposed of it in the receptacle for trash. She glanced at me, her face red with embarrassment and heated from holding in the tears pooling in her eyes. She made a hasty retreat with the site administrator’s hallow “thank you” unacknowledged.

 

I understand the site administrators frustration. She had just sent an email about people putting their trash in the recycling can and needing to clean up after themselves because she is tired of doing it. I know this is aggravating because it is my life at home with the children.  Surely one can expect a group of adults to clean up after themselves. But, this above quote popped into my head, thinking of how sad my friend was this morning and how much she really didn’t need to be yelled at about trash. Life is hard. I don’t think we need to make it harder on one another. “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle you know nothing about.” You never know when the roles might be reversed and you might need to be on the receiving end of someone else’s kindness. 

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