I learned an important lesson this Thanksgiving. From the kindness of strangers comes the most love and happiness. Let me explain.

This Thanksgiving was going to be my first alone. This was going to be the first Thanksgiving where I didn't have a huge feast or any Thanksgiving type food at all. This was going to be the saddest Thanksgiving of my life.

Sitting on my couch watching the Macy's 90th Thanksgiving Parade, the only thing that could bring a smile to my face, I combed through Facebook with my morning coffee and cigarette. While I was scrolling, I got a notification that someone was selling something on a yard sale page that I am a part of. This was odd because I only get notifications from this page when somebody has commented on a status that I have either posted or commented on myself.

So, curious, I clicked on the link to go to the post. It was a post about a restaurant that was offering a free Thanksgiving mean to the "homeless, lonely, and those without Thanksgiving food." The restaurant was pretty far from my house and without a car I had no way to get there. I left a comment on the post telling the poster that she was an extremely gracious woman for offering this to her community and how I hated not being able to go to the meal since I was both lonely and without Thanksgiving food. About thirty seconds later, I see she had replied to my comment. Her reply? "I'll pick you up. Message me your address."

I instantly started crying. How could this stranger, someone I've never met in my entire life, be so kind to offer me a ride? I responded and 45 minutes later, two women were at my door to drive me to this meal.

When I arrived to the restaurant, I was amazed. There was a giant feast of delicious Thanksgiving food. Since I am pretty used to eating one time a day, I went crazy and grabbed one of everything. I felt guilty, but at the same time, I wanted to get enough to be able to take some home later.

While I and about 50 others gorged ourselves on some of the best Thanksgiving food I've ever had, we had conversations. All of us, strangers to each other, were able to find solace on this holiday of love and connection. I met a man who used to be a therapist. We began talking about my mental health and how it connects to my daily life. We then began talking about my current financial situation (which is pretty abysmal).

This is usually something I would keep to myself, but something inside me told me this man was an okay person to share my story with. This man looked me in the eyes and said "I know how your personality is, so I don't want you to say anything when I make my next statement. Okay?" Confused, I nodded.

"I am going to buy you some groceries."

I started crying again. Another stranger had showed me an enormous amount of kindness and love. I said thank you over and over again. He gave me a hug and reassured me that my life was going to improve.

While we were talking, the subject of my singing came up. The owner of the restaurant had set up a keyboard and another man had brought a guitar. They were singing and I was really into it since music is my entire life. When I mentioned that I was a singer to the owner, she instantly flipped to "Hallelujah" by Leonard Cohen. With his recent passing, I knew that was the song I wanted to sing.

Now my allergies have been killing me and I knew I wasn't going to create the prettiest sound, but I knew I wanted to sing this song. So I let all my inhibitions go and sang straight from my heart. I started tearing up during the song. I think the overwhelming amount of support and love that I had received through the day had finally caught up to me. People were holding my hands and hugging me afterward and telling me how beautiful my voice was. I had just received more love from more strangers.

At the end of the meal, my original ride had to leave and couldn't take me home. I panicked. Yet another stranger showed me kindness and love by offering me a ride home.

I haven't experienced this much love and kindness from anybody in the last six weeks, let alone from strangers. From the kindness of strangers came the most love, support, and happiness that I've had in my life in a very long time.

This Thanksgiving, the words of the lovely Ellen Degeneres rung true throughout the entire day -- "Be kind to one another." That's exactly what happened to me all day. Not once was someone rude to me. Not once did I get a snide look for the way I look or the way I talk. Not one single time did someone say something snarky to me. For the first time in a long time, I was surrounded by love. Pure love.

This Thanksgiving changed me. I strive every single day to be kind to everybody, but I know that I'm not perfect at this job yet. This Thanksgiving reminded me why it's so important to be kind to one another. You never know when you're going to be the one that needs help.

From the kindness of strangers comes the most love and happiness. In the current state of our world, we need to remember this. We need to come together and love each other.

Let's remember that we can show kindness and thankfulness on more than one day a year.