While I lay in the hammock at Mission Beach last weekend, listening to the waves roll in, I found it very hard to focus on anything but what I was going to eat next and if the beer would be cold enough to crack yet. I was hoping the relaxed atmosphere and fresh air would help get my creative juices flowing; alas it didn’t, it just lulled me into a rather enjoyable afternoon nap. Honestly, whoever invented hammocks deserves a Noble Peace Prize or something. What it did do, however, was give me time to hang with my family and chat about all things life, kids, food, birthdays, food, the annoying amount of flies in North Queensland, more food – blah blah blah.

While I was lying there, we were chatting about how nice it is to witness acts of kindness, or be on the receiving end of one yourself. Whilst I’ve witnessed quite a few acts of kindness in action recently, there was one that has really stuck with me. I don’t know if it was because it was from a random stranger or whether it was because I wasn’t expecting it, especially from a person who looked like someone I would probably run from if I crossed him in a dark alley. He was a tall, stocky islander looking guy, covered in tattoos, shaved head, hoodie, motorbike…scary looking…you get the picture.

I was fuelling up my car, singing and dancing along to Justin Bieber (as you do when at the petrol station), when this guy came up behind me to tell me my front tyre was flat. I almost peed my pants because he scared the hell out of me, but once my heart slowed a little I realised how nice it was that this guy bothered to stop and tell me at all; he owed me nothing and could have just walked past me, jumped on his bike and been on his merry way. BUT, instead of just jumping on his bike and riding off into the sunset, he offered to pump it up for me; and when I say offered, I mean he insisted – he wasn’t taking no for an answer. Now I’m not sure if I looked completely clueless like I had no idea what I was doing (which is highly possibly) or whether he was just concerned with my general wellbeing and safety (let’s go with the first option). As if that wasn’t a lovely enough gesture, he then offered to check all other tyres, and pump them up, to make sure I got home safely – his words, not mine. 15 minutes later and he had made my day…my week even. In my eyes, this guy was the perfect gentlemen, and I didn’t even ask his name – oops! But, thank you to this knight in shining armour for helping this damsel, who wasn’t quite in distress, but sincerely appreciates your kind actions and big heart anyway.

Thinking back now, my initial judgement of this guy was based purely on his appearance. I threw him into a stereotype – shame on me. It made me realise, when in life did we start judging people based on what they look like and not on their personality? And why do we automatically jump to conclusions on how we expect certain looking people will treat us? We really should give someone a chance to show their true colours before we jump to conclusions on who we think they are – me included.

What we often forget is kindness comes in all shapes and sizes and sometimes from people we least expect it from. As the old saying goes ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’; you never know when the most scary looking or plainest book cover will turn out to be the most interesting, exciting or fascinating book. Be sure to take a few minutes to read the first couple of pages before making your judgement. You never know when someone might surprise you.

Love from J x