I met a cranky old man today

I went to buy some pretty paper to give my Nanna.

The man in the store looked like he hated me, and I was being a huge stress to him even though I hadn't really said much, just asked a couple of questions.

At first I was like...

I'm sick, and I wasn't in the mood. I wanted to tell him that he should speak nicer to his customers.

But then I remembered something I heard somewhere.

"You never know when you're meeting someone on the worst day of their life". I always try to remember that when strangers treat me poorly, so I was friendly to him instead. I asked him questions about his store and the paper.

Then something amazing happened.

He told me his story. He's been suffering for years with pain from arthritis, with bipolar and depression. Art helps him feel better, and he does a lot of things in the community to help people, elderly and dementia patients, people who struggle with drugs to heal and feel better through art.

I told him my story too.

I have also had bad pain for some years now. I was dealing with it well until my second operation failed to give the relief I had been hoping for. I went to the doctor because I had stopped sleeping altogether. He told me that I'd developed anxiety and depression from being sick for so long. Recently my art has been helping me a lot.

When I left he looked more like this.

He wasn't exactly happy but I could tell our exchange had meant something. I'm going to join his art group. He gave me some pretty paper offcuts for free, to make bookmarks with.

If you take nothing else from this it's please, please be kind to each other. Some people aren't jerks they're just suffering and they don't know how to be friendly, or they don't have it in them that day. If I had reacted indignantly to him when he was cranky at me I think we both would have been more unhappy.
The smallest act of kindness can mean so much to someone who is feeling fragile.