My amazing friend, Susan Harelson, of Coloradoyogaing.com, recently wrote an insightful blog post about an act of kindness she experienced at Chipotle.

This weekend I went to eat at Chipotle. For those of you unfortunate enough not to have one nearby, Chipotle is a chain restaurant that has giant burritos, with beans, rice and meat wrapped in tortillas. You stand in line and order at the counter, and it winds up being about a $10 lunch. It seems like a lot of money to pay for rice and beans, but they almost always have a line out the door. Anyway, I like it.

I went at a time when there was not a line out the door, and the woman who rang me up complimented me on my scarf. We chatted about it- I bought it at a thrift store, it had started out as yellow, and I had dyed it with acid dyes. She told me that when she was in her 20’s, she had owned a tie-dye business, and had been a weaver. We chatted about fiber arts for a few minutes as she punched the buttons on the cash register.

She then surprised me by saying, “You know what, I’m going to comp your drink, it’s such a pretty scarf.”

I thanked her and sat down. I was delighted. What a tiny thing to do, have an interaction and give something away for free. But what a difference it made in my day. The compliment was what mattered to me,  rather than the free iced tea. Although I didn’t turn it down.