Wednesday, March 26, 2014

a smile and a laugh between strangers....

yep...I know...
it's been a life and a half since the last time I was on here...
writing something...
and gosh, I gotta say, it would have to be a three part series to catch up on what's been going on since the last time I blogged...the life and times of honey fucking deacon, right?  :)
haha!
but instead of ye olde rehash, i'm just gonna go with my story of yesterday...
and then we'll work with the ebb of flow of the life and times...
let's see how that goes, shall we?
as you know already, I do a small service job, 4 or 5 days a week...in slow times, only 3, which, of course, makes me cringe when the schedule comes out...
in my head, i'm thinkin...'holy shit, how will I pay my bills?!', but somehow it works (in these parentheses, I must thank my parents for still caring and watching out for me, just in case I look hungry...thanks mom and dad...you rock...always)...
so, anyways, I feel like, those of us in the service industry know this feelin all too well...
but also, for me, I don't know about you, I usually find myself, on my days off, if I walk into a joint, whether it be a restaurant or a store, going out of my way to be nice to whom ever is taking care of me...
because, let's face it, we know what they're goin through...
taking care of others to make a living can take it all out of you.
even if it's not brain surgery or changing the world...
at the end of the day, you're taking care of what someone else needs.
that, in and of itself, can make you feel shitty or make you feel like you have an opportunity to make someone's day better...
somehow, you have that power...
even if it's in the smallest of ways...
sometimes that makes the biggest difference.
so, here's my lil story...maybe it will make more sense now that I've babbled a bit about somewhat thankless jobs, that we service folks do...
there are some days, that I totally feel thanked :)
and those are the good days...yep yep.
let's back up to yesterday's lil jaunt to some food and shoppin with my mom.
just a regular getaway for a few hours, but it seemed as if every store we went into, somehow we were able to make who ever was takin care of us, laugh and smile.
as for me, I love makin people laugh...to see that this person is letting go enough for just a minute or two, a total stranger, right there in front of you, enjoying that moment...
yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, that's like a victory in life, I think.
several stores we went into, we ended up in conversation with people somehow, from the Clinique girl behind the counter at dillards (we were giggling and laughin with her, sharing with her where to get a really nice cocktail), to the gap kids manager (who actually looked at first like she would fall asleep while ringing us up, until we said something to her that made her smile, and automatically she perked up and admitted to needin a coffee), to the Dominican brother in full robes, shoppin in Williams and Sonoma (when we first approached him, he seemed wary of these goofy women that asked him where he was from, but promptly got into a full on conversation about spain after he realized my mom was of latin decent, practicing his Spanish on her, happily), and the beautiful girl working at anthropologie (which as soon as I broke the silence of her checkin me out, that she told me how much of a surprise the beautiful day was to her, and as she handed me my change, she grabbed both of my hands and looked me in the eyes and thanked me for coming in, all the while smiling)...
it's not as if we changed anyone's lives yesterday, but before we walked up to them, who knows what was goin on in their heads...
maybe for that moment of laughing and smiling, we were able to help them feel better about whatever their day had been about before that second.
that eye contact...
   that exhale just before the laugh...
           that smile as you're telling each other to have a good day...
                   that moment that you truly know that we're all sorta in the same boat...
                           just tryin to make it sail.
when I got home from my lil girls day trip with my mom, I was telling one of my friends about it, and she was saying how nice it feels to be connected to people...
like when you have a day that you just seem to run into people, around every corner, and somehow make a connection with them...it truly brings you all together, even if you never see that person again.
I guess the thing about that is...if you walk with your head up and you notice people and are aware that all of this living is going on around you...that everyone is just going about their day, doing what they do and hoping for it to be happy in some kind of way...I guess if we just notice that and as often as possible leave a good imprint on the person we've just walked away from...
just imagine...
what you could do for someone in just that moment.
I was telling my mom about it as I was driving us home...I said to her, 'I bet/hope at the end of their day of work, they may think about those two fun women they took care of that day that made them laugh, when they were just going about their business of clocking in their time'...
yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhh, i'd like to think that, because at the end of my day or during it sometimes, when i'm working, I think that same thing...'man I love taking care of happy people' or 'that was fun to get a laugh out of that guy, he didn't look so nice at first'...
to put a smile on someone's face is a gift, and it doesn't cost a thing, except maybe a lil effort to make it happen.
so, when someone tells you that it's the simple things in life that make the difference...
listen to that person...
and grab those moments...
smile...
and laugh...

"there are only two ways to live your life.  one is as though nothing is a miracle. the other is as if everything is."  ~Albert Einstein~

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