This week I’ve been unwell again, but we needed food, so off we went to do the grocery shopping. I was trying to keep my expert helper under control (this week he was helping to push the trolley, very enthusiastically) and stop him from running into the path of other trolleys, wishing that I was at home in bed. 

Another mum with nappies stacked high in her trolley stopped and smiled at him. “Are you being good today?” she asked. 

“Kind of,” I answered. He wasn’t being bad but he was being his usual energetic self on a day that I wasn’t up for it. 

She smiled at me and said, “I know how that feels. I have a three year old and a two year old. I’m actually shopping without them for the first time in years while their aunty looks after them. Freedom!” 

I laughed and commented on how it was that grocery shopping on your own sometimes feels like a luxury. Then we parted ways and I went off cheered up. One thing I have found on bad days is that it is remarkable how a few kind words from a stranger can make such a difference. I am lucky to come across so many kind people in this world.