Sunday, August 25, 2013

another day at the barn....

wow...
here we are...
or i guess i should say...
here i am :)
3 whole months since i sat down to write!
summer...
it sorta does it...
just takes you away.
mine has, i think...in good ways and bad ways...
but...
here i am :)
soooooooooooo, where to begin?
hmmmmmmmmmm...
i guess i should probably just go with the story that made me think that it was about time i write something...
you know, as i always say, i find reasons to not sit down and write, even if i think, 'hey, this is a good idea', i still manage to find other things to do.
yep...am imagining it happens to the best of us.
but the other day i had a couple cool things happen to me in a row, while i was at work, that reminded me of how the small things in a day can change your view on the day, or your attitude, or your general feeling.
many of you will probably understand what i mean when i say that workin in the service industry can kinda put you at odds with your beliefs in human beings.
as i write this, it may sound sorta jaded or pissy or negative, but i don't necessarily mean it that way...
what i mean by that is that, there are days that you're just, for lack of a better term, sick of always taking care of people...cleaning up after them, dealing with their attitudes, smiling through their complaints, and saying, 'yes' all the time...
here's the thing...there are many times through those days that you come in contact with good/happy/kind-hearted people as well...
these are the experiences that help you glide a lil through your day...
that make you smile and think, 'hey, this isn't so bad, taking care of people'...
yep...it's those times.
so, this past sunday, i was doing my usual sling, with one of my favorite partners in the barn, and as i was walkin through the bag room, i noticed the bag of a member that only is in town here and there...
i decided when i saw his bag, that i knew he would play that day, so, i proceeded to grab his bag and set it up on a cart with some range balls...yes, just a usual thing you do when people play golf.
i have to tell you that last year, this same member and i didn't have a lot of appreciation for each other...he always came to play late, and would be the last off, and would not be that congenial, and you wouldn't see a tip from him, pretty much ever.
so, when he would come up, it would always be at the point that i would feel quite a bit of disdain from him just being there.
then one day, i decided that i needed to work harder at being friendlier towards him...it didn't make me feel good to hold anger against this guy that was just doing something he liked to do and something he paid great money for, and something i was getting paid for....
but mostly because i hate feeling that way towards another human being, whether i liked them or not...it's not good for your soul to hold onto that kinda stuff.
so, in this past year, i have worked to do lil things for him, and greet him with a more kinder face, and try and think ahead, so that he feels taken care of.
let me tell  you...it's made the biggest difference between us.
now when we see each other, we're both smiling and we chat, and then he goes off to play...
he even has mentioned a couple times how great it makes him feel that i'm always ready for him and take such great care of him...and in turn it makes me feel great that he notices.
so, back to the story...this sunday when he came down the steps, we said hello and he saw that his bag was already on a cart and ready to roll.
he smiled and laughed and asked me how i knew he was coming, and if i had seen him walking down?  i just told him i saw his bag downstairs and knew he'd play and wanted to be ready for him...
he was so happy by this small act, that he got on the phone with his wife, as i was standing there, and asked her to bring me some of the peach jam she had just made on the Friday before....
in his large southern draw, i listened to his conversation with his wife, and it made me happy...
he said to her, 'babe, you know that woman that i have been telling you about that works at the golf course, the one that always take care of me?  well, today i got to the course, and she had my bag out for me and on a cart, ready to go...i just want to do something nice for her too...will  you bring some of that jam down to her?'
he was smiling and i was smiling as he drove away to play his quick 18 in the late afternoon.
strangely enough, it brought a tear to my eye, just feeling like this person that i barely know, just did this kindness to me...just because i had been kind to him.
it made me smile pretty much the rest of the day.
crazily enough, not even an hour later, another member came off the course, and we were asking him how he liked his new house, and without even a thought, he said for us to hop in the cart and come check it out.
so, there we were, my work buddy and i, walking through this fantastic home of one of our members, and they were so friendly and lovely, showing us something they obviously were so excited about, and wanting to share with us.
we talked about the art work on the walls and about their kids and their lives before moving here...
it was a real moment of feeling not like a server.
as we rode the cart back to the barn, we both were so happy to have been treated with respect and care, that we were both just smiling and laughing about our day.
i know that I've probably talked about this often...
but as a server for many years, it can become this feeling of 'us and them'...
this feeling that you're not on the same level as another person...just because they have more.
it kind of gets hammered into you, in some way or another.
because there are some days that you do get treated that way, like you are lower...
it's easy for that feeling to get stuck in your head, and it stays.
i think that i am as much to blame for that feeling as the person on the other side, to be honest.
we are the ones, after all, that let people make us feel a certain way.
it is i that chooses to hold onto that.
but...
at the end of the day...
those small things, those kind gestures, from another human being, another soul...it's those things that make the difference in a day.
in a life time, actually.
there are loads of times that i'm cleaning someone's clubs that are stayin at the hotel (and if you didn't know, i work at a course that is next door to a pretty nice hotel, that we work in conjunction with, so we take their clubs to the hotel when they're done playing golf, being its a service we provide to make things easier on the guest) that the golfer will ask, 'will they take the clubs back to storage for us?' and usually i just reply, 'yes, of course'...but more recently, after hearing that for some time, I've started to reply, ' i am they '...
the first time i said it...i surprised myself and it made me smile...but it also took the guest of the player that asked me that by surprise too...and they actually laughed as well.
the more i thought about my reply, the more i liked that phrase...'i am they'
if you think about it, we are all 'they' to another person.
which kinda means we are all 'we'.
so quick to stand at arms length from another person because we're different or we are on a different level of success or we're not as pretty...
whatever the case may be...we're all here...
struggling to survive and holding hope for what's to come.
yep...it's the simple things in this life that carry us through.

"everyday may not be good,
but there's something good in every day." ~anonymous~

so, just remember, when you're going about your day, and it seems bleak and full of nothing, if you look hard enough, you'll find good things...they may be small...but small may just be enough to get  you through to the next day.
yep.
i am they.

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