Sometimes even the simplest of gestures can be enough to start a chain reaction of kindness. That’s the moral of this story: you never know how much a simple act of kindness can accomplish.

There is a concept known as “the butterfly effect” where the flaps of a butterfly’s wings lead to a tornado on the other side of the world. In a nutshell, this story illustrates that our actions cause other actions, a chain reaction of events that impacts the rest of the world. If your actions are kind and compassionate, then you increase the chances of more kind and compassionate actions taking place everywhere.

Chain reactions of positivity.

One woman from Florida found that a very simple compassionate act led to a chain reaction of positivity. Barbara Mack didn’t do anything drastic, all she did was purchase a bottle of water for a man experiencing homelessness.

Barbara was in a store and noticed a man experiencing homelessness standing outside.

“I may have inadvertently started a revolution in the convenience store today,” Mack wrote on Facebook.

Barbara explains what happened.

“I stopped to grab a water, and on the way in I saw a homeless man I know sitting in the shade with his bike beside him. He was red-faced and shaky looking. I asked if he was ok, and he told me that he was just resting. This guy’s got the mind of a child, and I’m afraid he doesn’t know he needs to stay extra hydrated when it’s super hot outside,” Barbara wrote on Facebook.

Barbara told the cashier at the store that she wanted to run outside and give the man the bottle of water. She also asked the cashier to hold onto her other items as she did this. Evidently, another customer in line heard what Barbara was doing and decided she had a problem with it.

Woman confronts Barbara for “enabling” the man.

Barbara was confronted by another customer upon returning to the store. She wrote about what happened on Facebook.

“When I came back in, the lady in front of me turned around, hands on hips, and told me that I was just enabling that ‘homeless person’ (said with a sneer) and that I shouldn’t be wasting my money on him,” she wrote.

“And then she told me I should be ashamed of myself. That someone should call the police on him, and that it should be illegal to beg for money. That people who give the homeless money just encourage them to stay homeless and that should be illegal, too.”

A kindness revolution begins.

Other customers in the store heard the lady confront Barbara and this kicked off a “revolution of kindness”. Barbara wrote that the person at the front of the line added a sandwich to his items to give to the man. Then someone behind her in line purchased ice cream, and someone else decided to give the man cash. What an amazing lineup of people this store had!

“The guy behind him bought an extra ice cream. The girl behind HIM got change for a twenty ’cause that guy could probably use some cash.'”

“Every single person in line got him something. Everyone, except the now very embarrassed lady in front of me, who slunk out without saying another word.”

Then the cashier didn’t even charge Barbara for the water she purchased.

All of these people are great, except for one, of course. Barbara saw the man as she walked outside, he was grinning and eating ice cream. Barbara would finish off her post by mentioning what the whole experience meant to her.

“And there, people, is the story of why I hate people. And why I love people. All in the same damned minute,” she wrote. “I sat in the car and drank my water and laughed with tears in my eyes, same as I’m doing now.”

Read Barbara’s original post below.

Please SHARE this with your friends and family.

https://www.facebook.com/barbara.mack01/posts/10222045692503670

Source: Barbara Mack/Fox News