onesmallthing

Everyday, and I mean everyday, I am in some type of coffeehouse getting my allotment of caffeine.  I order a large black, bold coffee. I am a creature of habit and I often go to one of only 3 or 4 locations.  You would think that due to my frequency alone, I would receive some sort of recognition.  It is on the rare occasion that I am lucky enough to have someone offer a smile or kind word in any of my daily stops.   Most of the time, a word is not even spoken.  The counter person nods, I order, I pay, and I receive my drink.  There is not a “thank you”, not even the standard “have a nice day”.    In one location the person behind the counter wears thick black gloves to further protect themselves from getting to close to the customers.  In almost all of the locations the workers seem bored, put out or like they just should not be in a job that interacts with people.  On most days when I walk in to get my coffee, I feel like I have intruded and disturbed those workers just by being there and wanting to pay them for a coffee.  I have worked in customer service.  I remember being rewarded by being friendly, by getting to know my customers and by thinking in some small way I made their day better. 

I am looking for a friendly location to get my coffee.  If I find it, I will write about it.  If you know of one, write me and I will check it out and report back here.  I would like to reward the everyday workers that come to work with a smile on their face, those that really can make the customers day just a little bit better.

Recently my eighteen year old daughter came to me with her idea of a perfect Christmas.   She suggested we make each other gifts, and spend time together.   She has joined me in thinking that the Holidays should be spent giving something that matter instead of getting “things” that don’t.    Our family has enjoyed a somewhat priviledged lifestyle that year after year seems to get further away from the joy of the season.  It seems we are running, and stressing and struggling just to make sure everyone has the same number of presents to open, with the same basic dollar amount spent on each person.  We find ourselves going into debt buying things just to buy them and each year we find gifts that not only weren’t used, they weren’t even taken from the package!  Imagine how good we would feel, how fulfilled we might be, if instead of this craziness we gave of our selves to others.  Right here in the United States, there are children that go to bed hungry.  They hunger  for food, for love, for knowledge and for kindness.  Around the world there are mothers struggling to give their children just a sip of clean water. 
The smallest act of kindness, the smallest gesture of stepping outside ourselves and offering something of value such as time, talking, being, listening, helping-all might start something of a revolution.  A revolution of relationships.  AND, imagine if we each just took $1 of the $450,000,000,000 spent on gifts that no one really wants and gave it to an organization that provides clean water to a child, we might in our own way change the world. 

I am going to join my daughter this year and do just one small thing for someone else.  Just One Small Thing.

What ever your religion or beliefs, just do one small thing.