[00:05.61]It was a bright Saturday morning in the late fall.
[00:09.11]I had stopped at a cafe' to enjoy a cup of coffee and scan the morning newspaper.
[00:15.45]Suddenly, I felt a hand on the back of my jacket and heard someone say,
[00:20.81]“Hey Steve! How ya doin'?”
[00:23.00]Looking up, I saw a boy wearing a mechanic's uniform
[00:27.70]worn by employees of the gasoline station next to the cafe.
[00:31.64]He looked familiar, but, at first, I was unable to recall where we had met.
[00:37.00]He also held a cup of coffee, so I asked him to join me.
[00:41.27]Very soon, his story—and probably my coffee—began to thaw out my memory.
[00:47.50]Five years earlier, he had been traveling home late on a February night.
[00:53.41]He still had several of his friends with him.
[00:56.14]A ferocious blizzard had arrived that afternoon,
[01:00.09]and by midnight, the snowdrifts were getting deep.
[01:03.25]He recalled hitting a drift just down the road from my house.
[01:08.06]He had walked to my house for help.
[01:10.91]I had taken my pickup and a towing rope
[01:13.98]and pulled his car out of the snowdrift and up to the highway
[01:17.91]where maintenance trucks had cleaned away the snow.
[01:20.65]This has been a common occurrence here during the winter.
[01:24.59]I cannot count the times someone has also pulled my car from a snowdrift.
[01:29.50]However, it was an unforgettable experience for him.
[01:33.22]He was only eighteen at the time, and he described how frightened he had been.
[01:38.47]One would not want to be stuck all night in a storm like that one.
[01:42.52]Within a couple of hours, my pickup would not have made it to the highway.
[01:46.78]His memory of our unexpected meeting in a snowstorm brightened my entire day.
[01:52.03]Leo Buscaglia wrote, “Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile,
[01:59.26]a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring,
[02:05.38]all of which have the potential to turn a life around.”
[02:08.72]Such simple actions can indeed have an underestimated power.
[02:13.32]Many people desperately need kind words, smiles, and listening ears.
[02:18.89]They need ears that will hear without judging and respond without possessing.
[02:24.46]One simple kindness at the right moment can change the direction of a life
[02:29.83]and shine a light of hope when all light seems to have gone out.
[02:33.98]Sometimes it has the power to save a life.
