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This is a quick story about what recently happened with my kids. They swim in the swim team at The Greater Lowell YMCA here in Lowell, Massachusetts and with many swimmers in the pool area at the same time it can get pretty busy. YMCA has many other water activity related programs that people of various age groups participate in, few of them are timed such that the swimmers and the other people are in the pool at the same time, in different lanes of course.
One of such program is aquatic aerobics, which is a healthy living program for the adults, that was scheduled during the swim practices for both my children. The instructor of this program would stand on the side of the pool outside of the water with the music device playing also on the side of the water. As the swimmers would come out of the water on one end to go to the other end by walking, as they walk on the side of the pool, at times they would cause some disruption in their program. The instructor of the adult program would request the swimmers to practice using the other side of the pool to walk around it, and would get limited success with this.
My children Anjaneya and Agamya listened to her patiently and always remembered to use the other side of the pool. This continued for a couple of months and it just became their nature to avoid causing any interruption to their program and use the other side of the pool to walk back to their diving side of the pool.
The instructor was very observant and noticed that these 2 kids are always ensuring that they do not walk by their program side to avoid disruption. At the end of their program, the instructor sent a note to us, parents, asking if we are fine with her giving both the kids some rewards. This is when it came to our attention that both Anjaneya and Agamya have been good listeners and showing their compassion towards other people around them.
They both got nice big chocolate packs and a big Thank you from the instructor of the other program. It was a very simple ask of someone to do something that would keep things running smooth and though this act may not have put any smiles directly on the program participants’ faces, it certainly ensured that they do not feel bad about someone disrupting their routine.
This act of passive kindness from the kids turned into an act of active kindness and recognition from the instructor. Certainly brought smile to my face, and I hope it does to you as well.
Thank you for reading!
