A Story of Unexpected Kindness

[00:00:00] Hey, ho Dear Ones. Guess what? Tomorrow is my birthday and I’m doing something super different this year. This year I’m actually planning the experience and the birthday that I most want to experience. In the past, I have taken the approach that birthdays don’t. Mean a lot to me and like celebrating is not a big deal.

[00:00:25] And so I don’t plan anything. I don’t tell others what I want , only a hand, like most of the people that I know when my new community don’t even know when my birthday is, I don’t offer the information. I don’t have a party. And then every year I get a little disappointed that things. Didn’t happen the way I would’ve liked.

[00:00:50] It’s like I am, I’ve been waiting for others to read my mind and give me what I want, and I’m slightly disappointed when people don’t do that, and that’s really silly. I decided this year to take charge of my birthday and just have the experience that. I wanna experience. And so as part of that, I have a batch of podcast episodes due.

[00:01:20] And I thought about all the different things I could record and I thought, well, what would be a great birthday celebration, uh, theme. For this batch of podcast episodes, and I came up with inspirational stories. I love sharing stories. I love sharing inspirational stories that come from events that may seem on the outside looking in like a minor event, but when you scratch the surface, you actually see that there’s.

[00:01:55] Really a lot there to unpack, and that’s really the theme of today’s inspirational story. So we’re kicking off a four part series where I’ll be sharing inspirational stories and in today’s episode. I reveal the first inspirational story which takes place at London Heathrow Airport, where something unexpected and absolutely delightful happens.

[00:02:29] I’ll end on an invitation that will have you feeling inspired and ready to pass that inspiration on to others. So please stay with me until the end.

[00:03:17] Hey there dear ones. We’re creating a global community of soul guided leaders, coaches, healers, and entrepreneurs called the Soul Guide Circle. In the Soul Guide Circle. We’re inviting in our spiritual gifts to get our clients even more results and transformation so they can create massive referral buzz.

[00:03:38] Find the link to join our closed Facebook group at allysonscammell.com. Or in the show notes today, we kick off part one of a four part series where I’ll be sharing inspirational stories in honor of my birthday, which is tomorrow. And the first story I’ll be sharing just occurred, it just happened last week.

[00:04:02] I was in England, uh, for our kids’ spring break. And we went to London. We went to this amazing little village called the Hilden, oh, excuse me, Hinden. And it is near to Stonehenge because we were visiting Stonehenge. And let me tell you, that was a highlight. I found the cutest little bed and breakfast in the English countryside, and it was spectacular.

[00:04:28] I would definitely go back to that place many, many, many times. I wanna go back again with Astrid because it’s a very dog friendly place with dog friendly hotels and restaurants and trails and hiking, and it was just so just. Unexpected, right? I, I wasn’t expecting it to be so beautiful and wonderful. And to be honest, this is gonna be kind of weird because Stonehenge is this place that has spiritual significance.

[00:05:00] And did the aliens build it and leave it there? And where did it come from and is it transmitting signals? Like I’m all getting sort of intuitive yeses to that, but that’s not the point of this episode. I wasn’t that interested in Stonehenge. It was pretty, and it was cool, and I’m glad I went, but I just, I wasn’t in the mind frame for it.

[00:05:22] I think it was cold and rainy, but not super cold and only a little bit rainy. I don’t know. I, I, I just didn’t have the experience I thought I would have there, although I’m glad I went. So if you haven’t gone and it’s on your list, keep it on your list. But let me tell you, the thing that blew me away was this cute village 

[00:05:44] It was called Hinden, and the hotel we stayed at was the groves near arms. And I, I just, I can’t, I don’t know, what was it about the place? It had this great energy. There were all these really young people who worked there and they were all kind of cool and well dressed and just not the people you were expecting to work at a very small Village Inn.

[00:06:12] And I loved the vibe and the food Was ridiculous. It was so good. And the rooms were so cute and we visited a few of the little villages in this, in this area near Stonehenge. And I just, that was the experience that, really. It was so exciting and wonderful for me, but that’s not the point of this story.

[00:06:39] The story is, so we finish our week in England and we had an absolute ball and we were all getting a little bit sad because my older two children live in Maine. We are a blended family. They are almost 16 and 18 as I’m recording this episode. And we, my youngest daughter, Freya, and my husband and I live in the Netherlands.

[00:07:05] So despite the distance, we actually do see them quite a bit because we travel back and forth and we are really close and bonded, so it’s always very hard to say goodbye. So we were kind of getting emotionally prepared for our goodbye because. We were heading to London Heathrow Airport, where Sophie and Alexander would fly back to Maine and Pete Fray, and I would fly back to the Netherlands.

[00:07:33] So we rented a car and we went back to the car rental and we, had to take a shuttle from the car rental place to the terminal. And I have to say, and I’m gonna say we rented from Hertz just to give Hertz some advertising here because we had such a good experience with the shuttle drivers. When we were picking up the car at the start of our trip, of course we had to take a shuttle from the terminal to the car rental place, and the driver was just delightful.

[00:08:14] I try to shy away from stereotypes, but if it’s a positive stereotype, I’d think it’s okay sometimes. And he was like that sort of classic just kind Englishman that you imagine. Do you, if you remember, my younger listeners aren’t gonna know this reference, but , if you remember the film from the eighties, the National Lampoon’s European vacation where their griswolds go to Europe and they’re in England. They’re actually in London, and they keep encountering this impossibly kind, polite Englishman and Clark keeps like, bumping into him, crashing into him, giving him a broken arm, giving him a broken leg, and the guy is just.

[00:08:56] Always just kind and saying, oh, that’s okay. Don’t worry about it. These things happen. It’s an accident. It’s almost like this guy reminded me of this character just impossibly kind. Asking us questions about ourselves. My husband is a big soccer stroke football fan, and so they were talking football and this animated conversation, and it was just such a lovely experience and he helped us with our luggage and asked us what we were doing on our holiday.

[00:09:26] And you could tell he was just a lover of the human condition and. Really, truly just interested in learning about people. And I was just like, Ugh. You know, human to human connection like that means so much to me. And so I was so appreciative of this experience, but this isn’t even the inspirational story, you guys.

[00:09:45] I’m getting to it. So now vacation is over. We’re a little bit sad getting prepared for our goodbyes at the airport, we’re at the Hertz drop off rental office. And now we’re getting back into the shuttle to go back to the terminal. 

[00:10:02] And if you’ve ever been to Heathrow, you know, it’s a huge airport, so it’s quite a distance from the car rental offices to the terminal. So we load up on this bus, it’s a different guy. He’s a little bit more kind of like. Down to business, but that’s okay because it was in the middle of the day. It was quite busy.

[00:10:24] , but he was very kind and polite and helped us with our luggage. 

[00:10:27] And as we were sitting in the shuttle, we could hear people talking on the driver’s walkie talkie or his handheld radio, and I believe it was the other drivers from other shuttle services or bus drivers that take people to and from Heathrow airport. And it was absolutely magnificent. The driver had it up turn, turned up really loud so you could really hear what they were saying.

[00:10:56] So first this guy gets on and says, Hey, everyone. I, I will not affect an English accent because I’m not very good at it, but, it might pop out a little bit. And for my, people in the uk, I apologize in advance for my bad English accent. He’s like, Hey you guys, you know, our shift is ending and I just want to say that you guys did magnificent today.

[00:11:20] Well done team. I’m really proud of you. You deserve a good rest of your afternoon off, and we’ll see you tomorrow. And I was like, wow, what a boss. That is amazing. And then this other guy gets on and says, Hey everybody, thanks for all your help and support today.

[00:11:38] You’re an amazing team. I feel really honored to be working with you today. And then a woman gets on and said, I really enjoyed it today. Love you guys. , see you tomorrow. Have a good evening. And it just like, person and person, they were all signing off for the day. And everybody got on and just said this really kind, uplifting, respecting, inspirational for me anyway, sitting there listening to it, message to each other.

[00:12:06] And I just was sitting there, I was looking at my daughter, Sophie, and we were, she was looking at me and we were like, this is fricking fantastic. And it people were just being kind to each other and uplifting and appreciative, and it was very subtle, but it was so unexpected. I can imagine being a shuttle driver at one of the largest airports in the world is stressful.

[00:12:34] People are rude. It can get probably monotonous, I would think. I don’t know. But something is happening with this group of people anyway, where they clearly had a very good working environment with people who supported them, told them they did a good job. Rewarded them for a good effort and they felt appreciated and respected, and you could just feel that in their voice.

[00:13:02] And it left me feeling like, wow, those people were just so kind to one another. And it wasn’t an act. People weren’t, I could, I could hear the sincerity in people’s voices. That’s something that’s hard to fake. And it got me to thinking about all the toxic work environments I myself experienced for my 17 years, having a nine to five.

[00:13:29] There’s several people who I love very dearly who are, part of my inner circle who are right now dealing with toxic work environments, and it always makes me so sad. When you hear about toxic work environments, because I just say to myself, why? Why can’t we just be kind to one another? Why can’t we just respect one another?

[00:13:54] And I think what’s really ultimately happening is that it’s, the ego just takes over and people feel like they need to save face. People feel like they need to guard all the glory work for themselves. It’s like this, zero sum game. If I let you shine, that means I won’t shine.

[00:14:15] Instead of, Hey, let’s shine a light on each other and we can lift each other up. And it was so inspiring for me to be sitting in this unexpected sort of cramped hot bus heading to an airport to get on a flight to say goodbye to my kids. And there I was just listening to this beautiful. Human to human exchange of kindness, respect, and what I felt to be mutual admiration of each other.

[00:14:48] And it left me inspired. It left me feeling like I myself want to spread that I myself wanna pass that on. Which is why I am recording this podcast episode. I wanna pass it on to you, and I wanna find ways in my every day where I can pass on unexpected kindness to others, unexpected praise or gratitude, or thanks.

[00:15:19] I want to be inspired by these people and pass this kindness on. And so I would love to get some stories going of some unexpected kindness that you might have experienced or unexpected inspiration. So I would love for you to share your stories if you feel so-called in our closed Facebook group, soul Guide Circle.

[00:15:47] , and, just, share a post of an unexpected. Act of kindness that you experienced that really left an impression. And my invitation for you this week is to see if you can find those opportunities.

[00:16:03] That you weren’t expecting and no one’s expecting for you to pass on some kindness, pass on some gratitude, pass on to some appreciation to someone in your life who you really appreciate and you really feel called to share that appreciation. But maybe because we’re busy, you see them all the time, you’re in your routine, whatever it is.

[00:16:28] We don’t always say it. We feel it, but we don’t always say it. So my invitation for you this week is to go ahead and say it to that person. Maybe a loved one, maybe, the driver of your shuttle bus, whoever it is, pass on some kindness, pass on some appreciation and see how that intern lifts you up.

[00:16:48] Alright, that’s a wrap for this week. If you want to give me some birthday love. You may do so by heading over to the show notes or wherever it is you listen, hit subscribe and leave me a happy birthday raining in review. I will be so grateful. I will receive that birthday present with lots of love, and I will read your amazing words on the air and I’ll be back in your earbuds next week with part two of this four part series of sharing inspirational stories. And until then, may your soul guide the way.

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Learn more and enroll at allysonscammell.com/SoulBlueprint. Or if enrollment is closed, you can join the sole list, so you’ll be the first to know when the next cohort is opening up, and you’ll also be eligible to receive special high value bonuses. Again, that’s allysonscammell.com/SoulBlueprint

00:00 Introduction 

01:05 Planning a Special Birthday

02:05 Inspirational Stories Series

03:59 Trip to England and Stonehenge

06:46 Unexpected Delight at London Heathrow

13:27 Reflecting on Kindness and Work Environments

15:34 Invitation