Sometimes the smallest of gestures can have the most profound effect on a person’s day, month, year, or even life.
Something as simple as smiling at another person can help them get through a tough day.
Kindness is so powerful that even just watching an act of kindness can make one feel peaceful and happy.
Scientific studies show that witnessing acts of kindness also makes you more apt to engage in acts of kindness yourself, according to the University of Michigan‘s psychology department.
One little girl managed to brighten the days of an entire crew of train conductors with her kindness.
All she did was wave to them. It all started when Briana Hefley Shepard’s family moved their business into a new location along some train tracks.
“We get a front-row seat to all of the locomotive action. My daughter lives for it. It didn’t take long for the conductors to notice her waving to them and for them to return those waves,” Shepard wrote in a post for Love What Matters.
“As time progressed, it became their ritual. They’d blow their whistles, she’d run to the window, they’d open their windows, and everyone would wave and smile ear to ear. I teared up almost every single time.”
This took place for three years. Shepard had trouble adjusting when her daughter eventually went off to school.
She thought she was doing well until the train came by and blew its whistle.
Though her daughter wasn’t there, she still stood in the window, teary-eyed and waving at the conductors.
The next day she made a sign that said “She started school,” and held it up to the window when the train and its conductors came by.
Three weeks later there was a knock at the door of the shop.
It was a man asking about the little girl with the blonde hair that waves to the trains.
He was one of the train conductors. He said that they had saw Shepard’s sign but couldn’t read it.
They assumed that the little girl went off to school.
But they wanted to be sure so they stopped down the tracks and walked over to the building to knock on the door and ask.
“He said that her waves had made their days. For three years they’d shared these moments,” Shephard wrote.
The conductors asked if they could do something nice for the little girl.
Mom said yes so they said they would come back with some birthday presents.
“Witnessing their unconventional friendship over the past several years has been nothing short of magical. To know it impacted them just as much as it impacted us, fills me with love and hope,” Shephard wrote.
Shephard’s post about her daughter went viral and brought joy to thousands of people across the internet.
Which is proof of how kindness creates a ripple effect of positive energy.
You can check out Shepard’s full post below.
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Source: Love What Matters, University of Michigan
