The Rules of the Heart

There has been a profound sadness around me lately, so I took it upon myself the other day to cheer myself up. I was waiting for the bus with a bunch of people. Well, the bus was there, the doors just hadn't been opened for us yet. When the bus driver came to open the doors for us, as she passed, she told the elderly woman in front of me that she had too many bags and she wouldn't be able to board the bus.

I felt like helping her would be nice, and cheer me up, so I offered to take some of her bags on the bus for her. She thanked me profusely and told me that she had just been let out of the hospital and no one had been able to come and get her, so she had to take the bus. She gave me two bags to carry. One of them held her dirty clothes, and the other held a Peace Lily. I saw the plant as a good omen, and on the 45 minute trip to the next town, I felt happy that I had been able to help this person.

After, I met her off the bus and I handed her the bags and a small felt heart I had made. She thanked me and reminded me to get my bike. As I was removing my bike from the rack, the bus driver came out and scolded me for helping her. She told me that the elderly lady who had just left the hospital had taken advantage of me and that she could have kicked us both off of the bus for breaking the rules. 

I felt pretty deflated as I lowered my bike off the rack, but when I looked up, I saw The Peace Wizard waving at me. The Peace Wizard, John C. Bromet, is a local celebrity. He walks around Bellingham and Mount Vernon with a large Peace sign, waving at people. He always makes me smile when I see him, but I had never talked with him before this, and now, I felt like I needed his power of peace to brighten my day.

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I put down my stuff, pulled out felt hearts for him and the woman he was speaking with, walked over and handed them to them. The Peace Wizard smiled, thanked me, sang me a song, and gave me this picture.  And I felt so much better.

​It's true, I did things for other people to cheer myself up, and maybe that is not strictly kindness, but I don't care. I would much rather break the rules to help someone than abide by rules that seem inhumane.

I hope that no mattter what is happening, no matter how challenging my day or life is, I will always choose to go out of my way to help people. That's the best kind of happiness there is.

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Happiness. It takes so little to get you there. I am happy I remembered that today.