Small Acts of Kindness: Someone Thought to Check on Me

A commitment to show up and write my truth | Day 296 of 365

Yesterday, in Learning to Let Go of What Was Never Mine to Carry, I wrote about a hard truth someone handed me and the question I've started asking before I pick anything up. Today began with a rough morning. By the afternoon, I had some of the answers I'd been waiting for.

Then my phone rang.

It was a medical professional, calling from their own cell phone, just to see how I was doing.

The details of my health and that conversation are staying private. What I can tell you is how it felt. I felt cared for, in a plain and ordinary way that reached me before I had time to brace for it. Someone had kept thinking about me after I left their office, and they picked up the phone to let me know.

I've thought about that call all evening.

I'm Usually the One Who Calls

If you know me at all, you know I’m usually the one checking in. I’m the one who remembers your appointment and texts afterward to ask how it went. Lately, I haven’t done it as often as I’d like, and I’ve made peace with that for this season. I still love doing it. It’s one of the ways I let people know they matter to me.

Being on the other end of it is less familiar. When the call came, part of me wanted to wave it off, tell them I was fine, and let them get back to their day. I didn't. I stayed on the line and let it land.

Maybe that's the piece of yesterday's lesson I didn't see coming. Letting go isn't only about putting things down. Sometimes it means opening your hands long enough for someone to give you something.

If you're the dependable one in your circle, you might know how strange that can feel. Receiving takes its own kind of courage. It asks you to believe you're worth the phone call.

Why Small Acts of Kindness Stay With Us

Maybe someone's face came to mind as you read this. A friend who remembered the date of your appointment without a reminder. A coworker who followed up on something you'd mentioned once, weeks earlier, and you realized they had actually been listening.

When you describe these moments later, they sound almost too small to mention. They called. They remembered.

And yet you can still feel it. Years from now, you might not recall what the weather was or what you ate that day, but you'll remember who thought of you.

That's what makes small acts of kindness so powerful. They rarely cost much, and they don't take long. What they say, quietly, is you were on my mind. When you're scared or worn down, hearing that can steady you in a way a grand gesture sometimes can't.

This call came from a personal cell phone, from someone who chose to reach out on their own time. I noticed that, and I won't forget it.

Choosing Where My Attention Goes

After yesterday's post, I could easily have spent today writing about what I'm still waiting on and what still feels uncertain. That would have been honest, too. But this afternoon handed me something good, and I decided it deserved my attention just as much.

I gave a parking app an entire blog post in Parking App Problems: I'm Trying to Give You Money. If a parking app can earn a few hundred words of my frustration, someone taking the time to check on me can certainly have a few paragraphs of my gratitude.

Most of us are very specific about what went wrong. We can repeat the curt email word for word and replay the tone of a bad phone call for days. The kind moments get a quick "that was nice," and then they slip away. I'd like to give the good ones the same detail and the same staying power. To me, that's discernment: deciding which moments get to shape how I remember a day.

Today, I'm choosing the phone call.

You Might Be Someone's Phone Call

There's one more thing I want you to hear. You have almost certainly done this for someone without ever knowing what it meant to them.

You sent the "thinking of you" text. You asked how the appointment went. From your side, it may have taken thirty seconds and felt like nothing special, maybe even a little awkward. You might have wondered whether you were intruding.

From my side of the phone today, I can promise you it wasn't nothing. It was the best part of a hard day.

So if someone has been on your mind, consider this your nudge. You don't need the perfect words. "I was thinking about you" is plenty.

And if you're usually the one doing the checking in, I hope someone calls you soon. When they do, stay on the line and let it in.

I'm grateful for the answers I got today. I'm even more grateful for the person who wanted to know how I was holding up. I get to keep the details to myself and still say this part out loud.

Thank you for thinking of me. It felt good to be cared for. 🩷

About the Author | Day 296 of 365

I'm a soul-led coach, entrepreneur, mother, and recovering perfectionist, currently navigating healing, uncertainty, temporary chapters, motherhood, work, big transitions, grief, nervous system healing, overstimulation, emotional growth, and the ongoing lesson that life works a whole lot better when we stop trying to carry everything alone. Today that lesson looked like staying on the line when someone called to check on me, and letting myself be the one who was cared for.

Day 296 of 365. Still showing up. Still noticing the good. 🐧