“At shove o’clock on a Saturday?” Eh. Sure.
Rather to my surprise I actually quite enjoyed today’s Costco trip: we ran into our friend Lisa, and then a mutual friend spotted us, one of Michelle’s friends growing up, and he asked after Michelle and Lisa and I asked after him and it was a grand old reunion over by the apples and pears.
And you know? I was feeling a sense of gratitude towards every single person who was trying to be careful not to block much less cream anybody nor put their cart where someone might back into it. People were looking out for people whom they didn’t know, constantly, even if on some level it was hidden. The intent to do good was there, visible all around for the seeing.
It was such a balm. I got one woman to look up and laugh by catching her eye as I oh oops! and moved my cart out of her way. She’d looked harried and distracted before that moment; I saw her smiling at the next person as she went on by.
I think that’s the thing I keep learning over and over: it’s the bad events that remind me how important the little good things are. As if I’d somehow forgotten. Or maybe, didn’t remember enough. Today, at least, I did.
10 Comments so far
Leave a comment
I’m glad you were able to safely navigate Costco. Yesterday my sister and I went to the National Book Festival on the mall. We listened to various authors and then met with the illustrator of my last book. When we headed home, the subway was Ridiculously Crowded. There were lots of events downtown that had just ended. A few people were complaining, but most people were extremely nice about it, and we wound up having a really fun conversation with the people around us.
Comment by LauraN 09.25.11 @ 6:27 amI’m glad to hear it went so much better at Costco today – and thank you for the reminder to be watchful for those around us and to appreciate those who are watchful of us.
Comment by twinsetellen 09.25.11 @ 7:31 amGlad to hear that the Grocery Trip turned into a event, ” a Smile a Day Keeps the Glooms away”
Comment by kristy phipps 09.25.11 @ 9:24 amIt is so easy to notice the inconsiderate things, the bad things, the nasty things, that it is easy to overlook the good that happens around us. So when we do, it is a real blessing.
Comment by Don Meyer 09.25.11 @ 9:41 amOh, and the Parker pic! Getting his musical education early. Is that thing in his mouth to keep him from singing along?
Comment by Don Meyer 09.25.11 @ 9:42 amah yes, the Costco conversations over the produce boxes — we have Costco here, but we don’t have the connections with people that start the conversations — I miss that
love the picture of Parker!
Comment by Bev 09.25.11 @ 10:13 amI really thing it’s the small kindnesses that can make an outsize difference. I even see it on the highway- let one person open a space for someone to move into the lane they need, and the next minute you spot them doing the same for someone else. Making the world a better place, one smile at a time!
Comment by RobinH 09.28.11 @ 7:30 amLeave a comment
Line and paragraph breaks automatic, e-mail address never displayed, HTML allowed:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>