Having just returned from a Family Vacation in Barbados, I am struck by the impact that kindness and warm hospitality can have on one's experience as well as the negative effect that occurs when the opposite happens.
Barbados was written up as an especially friendly, warm place where tourists are made to feel at home. Regretfully, I did not have that experience. Instead, I found the hotel staff to be somewhat abrupt and not very accommodating. They seemed to be doing their jobs begrudgingly. Perhaps, because of this experience, I was acutely aware of the few that were particulary nice and friendly such as the gentleman who lived in the far outskirts of the countryside and actually stopped our car to tell us how to get around a road detour just slightly up the way. Now, that was KIND!
It is amazing how different a place can feel when you are interacting with nice, friendly warm people.
It is like the difference between seeing a place when it is raining versus when the sun is shining. It just feels different.
We became friendly with a number of other guests at our hotel who were quite friendly. It is a gift to feel like you have made friends and bonded with people from all over the country who just happen to come together at a particular time and place. That will be a nice memory we shall keep with us forever.
My point on telling this story is that we can all add to the world and each others experiences if we showed some kindness along the way to those who we meet anew as well as those we already love.
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