07/27/2026
from Amy Betters-Midtvedt
Tonight I gave the bare minimum in kindness and almost made someone cry.
Man we are on the edge in our humanity in this country.
So my Aldi order was mixed up and somehow they didn’t know I was there to pick it up.
So I waited a really long time. Like a long time.
I even went in and didn’t see a single employee. Just a ton of my fellow people using the self checkouts.
I came back out and chatted with my mom on the phone and chatted with Sam who was with me and thought they must be really busy or something was not working right.
It was almost closing so I figured I’d grab someone when they went to lock up.
But also I was frustrated as the minutes passed.
I had just gotten out of the shower so I had zero make up on and my hair was air drying weird and I didn’t really want to deal with people. It was irritating and I just wanted to be home.
But also not the end of the world.
When someone finally came out they were so apologetic. Turns out the alert for my order event off and she finally noticed me on the camera.
You could tell she was bracing herself for my reaction…you know the way your body feels when you are going to have to apologize and possibly get a lot of mean words said to you? I could see that feeling on her face and shoulders.
Or maybe I’m projecting I don’t know.
But I do know I looked into her eyes and decided to roll with it.
Believe it or not that’s something we can decide to do.
Not every problem in life needs us to unleash as if it’s a personal affront to our very soul.
I see so many people right now just ready to snap. The smallest things can make us the worst versions of ourselves.
We are wronged and we want the whole world to know…even the smallest wrong can send us flying off the rails.
But mistakes are made by all of us all the time.
Yes all of us.
So grace should be given pretty freely considering the lack of perfection each of us brings to the table.
Anywho…I was pleasant.
Just pleasant that’s it. I said it was no problem and I understood and I helped her load the stuff into my car.
“Wow thank you for being so nice. Seriously you made my whole day.”
This went on and on.
I listened to her talk a bit about her day and gave her a giant pile of commiseration and understanding and it was just a few minutes but it stuck with me. She thanked me at least five times.
That’s a lot of times in two minutes.
And all I could think about was how bad her day had to have been if just this little bit of kindness could make her day.
Legit the bar is currently set LOW.
Please my friends let’s bring kindness back.
I know we can do it.
Be understanding.
Let things roll of your back.
Smile and look at peoples faces.
We are all going through things right now that are hard.
Let’s not let those things make our hearts hard.
Be kind.
You have no idea what people are dealing with and a small amount of love in the world goes a long way.
If you are looking for a place to start changing the world I’m here to tell you kindness in the Aldi parking lot is a great place to start.
