Most Men Don’t Act the Way This One Did at a Portland, Maine, Grocery Store

I wanted to share this story with you as we get closer to the holidays and are celebrating all the things we are grateful for in our busy lives.

I'm grateful for kind people. Simply put and simply meant. The people that do kinds things for other people without expecting anything in return. The purest form of kindness.

I want the man who works the seafood counter at Whole Foods in Portland to know that I'm grateful for the way he treated me last night.

Yesterday, after a very long day at work, I hit the store to grab some shrimp for dinner before heading to bed. I was exhausted and could barely keep my head up, but I knew I needed to make something healthy for dinner.

I smiled at this man and walked up to the counter and asked him how his night was, which I didn't realize was going to impact him so hard. He was taken back by the simple fact that somebody had smiled at him and cared about how he was doing before placing their order. I didn't think anything of our conversation, it just felt like a normal day for me.

Once he answered, we bantered back and forth before I ordered a few jumbo shrimp. He looked at me and filled the bag with more shrimp and said he wants to pay for it. It wasn't in a creepy or 'trying to hit on me' way, but rather a very sincere, wholesome type of way. He was simply passing along a thank-you gesture. I said "that's so kind of you", and he replied, "you were kind first".

I know this sounds so simple, but this meant so much to me. I continue to be surprised over small acts of kindness from strangers, mostly because I continue to be surprised over the way it always impacts me so greatly.

I didn't think twice about our conversation, I was just being polite. This man thought everything of this small conversation, which shows me he must deal with some nasty people. That part made me sad, but it makes my heart happy that humans still can be so genuine like this. So thank you to the kind man at Whole Foods who started out Thanksgiving week so positively for me.