Yesterday morning, Shihan Leigh and I decided to take a walk along Bondi Beach, something we haven’t done in a while. We were able to find a car space and paid for a 3-hour stay. We had a very nice stroll and stopped for a relaxing coffee.
After just over an hour, we decided to continue our morning by driving to Watsons Bay for another stroll and lunch. As we pulled out of our car space, I realised that almost 2 hours remained on our car space. I approached one driver to offer her our ticket. She thanked us but said she already had a beach parking pass. I then approached another driver – an older lady. She was pleasantly surprised and gratefully accepted the ticket. She then thanked us and wished us a very Merry Christmas.
We then drove to Watsons Bay. As we approached, it was difficult to find a space. First, we tried to find curbside parking to no avail, then we drove to the small local parking lot which was full. We pulled out of the car park and started to drive around, thinking that we might need to return home.
Just then, an elderly couple started to pack up their car, preparing to leave. We asked if they were leaving soon, and they said yes. However, cars started to pull up behind us, and another car pulled up by them to take their space. We drove away, thinking that we had missed that space, and tried to find another one elsewhere.
After about 10 minutes of driving around, we decided to circle back one more time as a last resort. As we drove along, we noticed the elderly couple was still parked in the same space! We slowly approached them, pulled down our window, and asked again if they were leaving soon. Amazingly, they said that they had been waiting for us to return and had waved away many other cars – for almost 15 mins! They said they knew we would return. As they pulled out, we thanked them for their kindness. For the rest of the afternoon, we were so grateful for the positive karma that had just returned to us!
Our experience at Bondi Beach, then Watsons Bay, is a perfect example of positive karma in action. Our small act of kindness at Bondi Beach brought a little bit of unexpected joy and convenience to another person’s day. Hopefully, they may have been more inclined to pass this gesture forward.
We then experienced an act of kindness at Watsons Bay when the elderly couple waited for us to return to their parking space. This thoughtfulness made our own day.
By being kind and considerate towards others, we can create a chain reaction of goodness and positive energy that has the potential to spread far and wide, in ways that we never could imagine.
