Unexpected gifts and smiles

'Serendipity is the effect by which one accidentally discovers something fortunate, especially while looking for something else entirely'...

On the tube the other day, I was feeling down. Exam revision was clogging up my brain and I was exhausted. At the second stop, two Chinese ladies, a small child and a pushchair got on and I moved to let them sit down. The next thing I knew an apple was thrust in my direction- with a thankful smile. I was so surprised by this act of kindness on a London tube! The other passengers around watched to see how I would react- would I dare to eat the unsanitised, unknown, unexpected fruit?

On the walk home from the tube, I passed the launderette where a little Indian lady always sits and waves at me when I pass by the window. I don't know who she is, she doesn't know me either but we have got into the habit of smiling and waving whenever we see each other. I don't even know if she speaks English but I know she has an open heart towards people.

Both these encounters made me think about how anonymity often gives us the excuse to walk around the city as if we didn't share it with anyone else. The pardox of millions of people living in such close quarters that they need to carve out their own space within the mass. The thing we all have in common is that we weave our own paths. But in the apple and the wave, I saw a glimpse of people who bring joy to others by making them feel they are noticed, not just part of the endless flow of faces. Their kindnesses, however small they might have been, changed my mood and in doing so gave me hope.