week fifteen.

this week was peppered with small joys—talking life and books over strong coffee and hot croissants, a visit to angie and the babies, grey days of coffee and vinyls with him, the thrill of coupling short sleeves with bubble tea—and something else i want to remember:

sunday afternoon was one where the effort it takes to live in a city (probably any city, not just this one) left me feeling kind of defeated.

mundane errands that would likely be fairly simple someplace else can feel overwhelming alongside thousands of other people trying to do the same. grocery shopping alone is a tangle of crowds and lines, bags hauled onto buses then trains then stairs. that particular day, i also kept missing trains by mere seconds, the doors slamming shut while i was only steps away.

so when the bus pulled away from the curb while i was still hurrying towards it, my arms full and patience drained, i was ready to wave a white flag to the day. somehow, though, the driver saw me, stopped, and opened the doors to wait for me. i will never forget his kind expression and the words that followed:

take your time. it's not easy.

the thing is, i do have it easy. that i can even afford groceries tells me so. i know that not everyone is so fortunate, and this fact is one that i try to never let escape me. 

even so, sometimes, it's hard. or, at least, it's not easy.

sometimes the details of daily life—not to mention the big things life tosses each of us—add up and overwhelm. sometimes even the smallest irritations compounded over a single day can feel like all too much. 

and, in such a moment, to have a stranger toss a breadcrumb of kindness my way, well, it was everything. kindness is everything.