The following is from Cynthia Sue Larsen, best selling author, motivational speaker and life coach.

One of the things we can do to immediately improve our quality of life is to greet everyone we meet with kindness, every chance we get.

While leaving a restaurant after dinner one recent evening, I opened the first set of doors in the air lock provided to help ensure the cold night air didn’’t rush into the restaurant all at once. As I walked through the interior doors, I was surprised to see a small toddler dash past me in a great hurry, heading toward the outer set of doors. A group of people entering the restaurant opened the outer doors, and the boy dashed out into the dark, heading toward the parking lot. Those people looked at me with eyes that seemed to assume the boy was with me, as he spend past them into the dark.

“Wait! Stop! Come back!” I called out to the toddler, while looking all around to see if anyone nearby might be with him.

Leaving the sidewalk and entering the parking lot, the young boy hesitated for a moment as he saw a car with headlights on slowly driving by. He called out to it in a high-pitched wail, “DA! DA!” standing with arms outstretched, before running into the parking lot, toward the car.

My mind raced as I wondered for a moment whether the people in the car might be with this young child—and then instantly decided that even if they were his family, he was too small to safely be running out into a dark parking lot at night. Acting quickly, I sprinted to the boy, grabbed him and lifted him into my arms. He continued to wave and look at the occupants of the car, seeming completely bewildered, as if they were not who he was expecting to see.

The toddler and I both watched the occupants of that car continue slowly driving through the parking lot, heading for the exit back onto the road.

Emerging from the restaurant just then was a dark-haired man in his late 20’s, whose eyes indicated a jumble of emotions including alarm, surprise, concern, and relief. He said, “Thank you!” to me, as he took the young toddler from my arms, saying something in a language other than English to the boy, who responded to him in their shared language, and began to cry.

I picked up the toddler’s right shoe, which had fallen off his foot in all the excitement, and brought it back. I mulled over how quickly events had unfolded, and how very differently things might have turned out if I hadn’’t sprung into action instantly and been so quick to respond.

I shared a smile with the man who seemed to be family to the toddler, sliding it gently back onto the toddler’s stockinged foot—giving his foot a tender squeeze of love and good wishes, that he will stay safe during his dashing-away toddler days.

Standing on the sidewalk just outside the restaurant, I felt a heartfelt connection to this man and boy. I was amazed that my small act of kindness could open my heart so fully in a moment that feels like Heaven to me still.

I invite you as you read through the reality shift experiences in this month’s issue of RealityShifters to consider how you might experience a sense of heaven by sharing kindness with those around you every chance you get. It’s fun to find out how good it can get when you bring kindness everywhere!

Cynthia Sue Larson can be reached at cynthia@realityshifters.com. You can also connect with her on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.