You're Never too Busy to Be Kind

Recently, I was on my way out of town looking for parking at Hartsfield-Jackson airport. I always arrive at least two hours before my plane boards to allow plenty of time for the unexpected, but I’ve never had this much trouble finding parking. Before pulling in the parking garage, there were signs that the hourly parking was totally full, which I didn’t think would affect me since I needed daily parking. But it soon became evident that those who needed hourly parking must have been parking in the daily section as well because all I saw were cars circling the parking lot. I went around the first level several times. I then decided to go up a level or two to see if there was more availability on different levels. Skipped the second level, the third was blocked off, so that put me on the top level. It was not even covered parking at this point. I’ve never seen so many cars in my life, (slight hyperbole, but when you’re trying to park to catch a flight it’s hard not to get dramatic regarding the lack of parking).

So round and round I went, looking for parking and praying that God would provide a parking spot, so that I would not miss my flight, and be delayed getting to the conference I was attending. I was making a wide left hand turn on what I thought/and still think was a one way lane and a woman going the opposite direction in the same lane started turning very close to me, almost like she was going to hit me. I made some comment about how we were both in the wrong and started to drive off continuing to look for parking.

The next thing I know this woman is rolling down her window. I didn’t know why (thought maybe she might have something to say about why she drove so close to me, lol), but went ahead and rolled mine down too. She let me know she hadn’t flown in a while and saw some signs that said hourly parking, and wanted to make sure she was in the right section for daily parking. I told her that as long as she went through the entrance for daily parking, I thought she should be fine. She continued to talk a little more and though I was itching to find parking, I listened as patiently as possible and tried to provide reassurance that she was in the right place.

Don’t you know as soon as I finished talking to that lady and drove off, I found a parking spot? I had been driving around for at least 20 minutes before rolling down my window. I thanked God that I finally found a spot and would not miss my flight. Turns out there were actually two spots and the lady got the other one. We spoke again before going into the terminal.

This experience taught me that you’re never too busy or in such a rush to be kind. If I had kept going I probably would have missed the spot, but even if there was no spot, being kind is always the right thing do.