The
other morning I had a bit of an emotional meltdown while getting my morning cup
of Joe. Mind you, I’m not normally the type to cry in public (except quietly,
at the appropriate times, in a dark theater showing a tear jerker), but this
particular morning I broke with convention … right in front of a poor
unsuspecting young lady.
“Why?”
you ask. Well it was one of those synergistic events where the combined effect
of multiple things was greater than the sum of the individual things.
The
first leg of my rickety emotional chair was the recent death of my step father.
Watching my elderly mother go through the 2nd death of a husband (in
less than a decade) had definitely saddened me and caused reflection on the
pains in life.
The second leg of my wobbly chair was the recent Sandy Hook school shootings. Every day since that tragic event I found myself tearing up with a sense of hopelessness and sorrow. I tend to literally feel the emotional pain of others (AKA contagious empathy), if I allow myself to focus on their suffering.
The third leg of my now teetering chair was my choice of iPod genres. I chose “Country” (need I say more?) and had listened to “Concrete Angel” that morning (thanks a lot Martina). In fact, feeling emotionally safe in my car, I pushed the replay button and listened to it a second time. I didn’t see the train wreck ahead.
The final leg of my collapsing chair was a text message I got just as I pulled into the coffee stand. I could have waited until I was safely alone at work to read it, but Oh No why wait? This resulted in my reading that … my dearest friends’ mother had just died and I was needed to comfort my friend … seconds before pulling up to my Baristas window.
I lost it.
I’ll skip the gory details and just say that my Barista (who probably deserved combat pay that day) gave me a hug and showed a level of kindness and compassion far too rare in our modern society.
After I explained the sequence of events that had preceded my (somewhat embarrassing) incident we started talking about the difficulties of life and how little acts of kindness can effect people in ways beyond what we imagine. She had recently learned how her purposeful smiles and friendly greetings had helped someone endure a particularly trying time. I shared my long held belief that happiness and joy are not limited resources to be hoarded, but can be increased in the world by individuals choosing to seek out opportunities to show kindness.
This brings me to the purpose of this Blog. The above incident and other recent life events have helped me to realize that while I can’t stop the suffering in the world I can do something to ease it.
“What?” you ask. With a demanding job, spouse, kids, home, elderly parent, health issues, etc. and barely enough energy to drag myself out of bed some mornings it won’t be earth shaking, but it will be something. For the next year I intend to use my limited time, energy, and skills (e.g. kind heart, sense of humor, creativity?) to do little intentional acts of kindness and Blog about the experiences.
Who knows, maybe others will follow suit and there will be a snowball effect with people all over the world doing intentional acts of kindness!!! Or maybe I will only succeed at putting smiles on a few people’s faces. That’s OK too, because in the wise words of Buddy the Elf “I just like to smile, smiling’s my favorite.”
The second leg of my wobbly chair was the recent Sandy Hook school shootings. Every day since that tragic event I found myself tearing up with a sense of hopelessness and sorrow. I tend to literally feel the emotional pain of others (AKA contagious empathy), if I allow myself to focus on their suffering.
The third leg of my now teetering chair was my choice of iPod genres. I chose “Country” (need I say more?) and had listened to “Concrete Angel” that morning (thanks a lot Martina). In fact, feeling emotionally safe in my car, I pushed the replay button and listened to it a second time. I didn’t see the train wreck ahead.
The final leg of my collapsing chair was a text message I got just as I pulled into the coffee stand. I could have waited until I was safely alone at work to read it, but Oh No why wait? This resulted in my reading that … my dearest friends’ mother had just died and I was needed to comfort my friend … seconds before pulling up to my Baristas window.
I lost it.
I’ll skip the gory details and just say that my Barista (who probably deserved combat pay that day) gave me a hug and showed a level of kindness and compassion far too rare in our modern society.
After I explained the sequence of events that had preceded my (somewhat embarrassing) incident we started talking about the difficulties of life and how little acts of kindness can effect people in ways beyond what we imagine. She had recently learned how her purposeful smiles and friendly greetings had helped someone endure a particularly trying time. I shared my long held belief that happiness and joy are not limited resources to be hoarded, but can be increased in the world by individuals choosing to seek out opportunities to show kindness.
This brings me to the purpose of this Blog. The above incident and other recent life events have helped me to realize that while I can’t stop the suffering in the world I can do something to ease it.
“What?” you ask. With a demanding job, spouse, kids, home, elderly parent, health issues, etc. and barely enough energy to drag myself out of bed some mornings it won’t be earth shaking, but it will be something. For the next year I intend to use my limited time, energy, and skills (e.g. kind heart, sense of humor, creativity?) to do little intentional acts of kindness and Blog about the experiences.
Who knows, maybe others will follow suit and there will be a snowball effect with people all over the world doing intentional acts of kindness!!! Or maybe I will only succeed at putting smiles on a few people’s faces. That’s OK too, because in the wise words of Buddy the Elf “I just like to smile, smiling’s my favorite.”
What a nice barista. You never know who will be there for you when you need it most!
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