I recently listened to a person I know tell me how he hates making small talk with cashiers. In the next breath he told me how he has lost faith in humanity.

I kept that in mind as I went through the check-out line at our local Fred Meyer grocery store tonight.

As I started to put my groceries on the conveyor belt, I overhead the cashier say she was, “… trying to find a home for these things.”

I asked her if they were homeless. She laughed, then looked at me with a serious expression.

“I was homeless once,” she said, stopping me cold.

I listened as she told me how she did not have a place to live and how eventually her sister took pity and took her in. Later, her boyfriend got her a seasonal job at Fred Meyer.

Her boss thought she was friendly so they offered her a full time job. She took it and,

“Now I have an apartment, pay bills and feed a cat.”

I thanked her for her story and left the store, my own faith in humanity reassured.

Volunteered as line judge for my daughter’s volleyball team to help out her, and her coach. As I watched balls bounce around the court, I thought about that cashier’s story and was even more happy to give something back.