Sometimes trips just aren’t what you have planned. This was the case this past week. Without getting into the details, I was left stranded in a country which I didn’t speak the language, 40 minutes from the city center by train, with a heavy bicycle, on a date that went bad who wanted me to go cycling in the sand. It’s been 8 years since I bicycled, and he thought bicycling in the sand would be a good idea. He left our trip together, and I was stranded to fend for myself navigating back to Riga on these trains from the Soviet Times. I had to lift a bicycle up and down these massive steps with doors that were difficult to open. Luckily strangers helped me in this moment bring the bike in before the train doors closed. When the train worker came by so I could pay for my ticket, I said “Riga.” She said No! She didn’t speak English, and a passenger said in broken English. “Wrong way, how did you do this?” I didn’t know. It was a moment I wanted to break down and cry. I had to get off at the next stop, and do this all over again for the next train on the opposite track. I was stuck carrying this heavy bicycle in a land where I didn’t know the language and I physically had to have strangers help me. My date left me stranded, but I was so kind that in broken English people could help me. It was definitely a rom com go bad moment, where things must shift and get better.
I am so grateful in moments like this for humans that are willing to help. Although they didn’t know how much it meant to me at those times, when I felt alone and hurt, their physical presence in assisting me meant the world. I know I will pay it forward in the future, as the saying says “we are all just walking each other home.”
“Kindness is the golden chain by which society is bound together.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
It Only Takes A Smile 