Happy Sunday Everyone:
I heard and witnessed a couple different things in the past two weeks that made me take notice.
I go into a Starbucks in downtown Danville most mornings, the place was just redone and cool. Sometimes if I’m running early, I’ll bring my laptop in there, sit at the coffee bar and check emails, catch up, etc.…Every single time I’m in there a group of 4-5 people are always sitting in there talking. Sometimes they’re a little loud, they’re always smiling, laughing, and truth be told, annoying. Why I find them annoying, I don’t know, I just do. I find overly happy people annoying sometimes…probably something I should consider and work on.
Last week I had one of those early mornings. I grabbed my coffee, ordered my egg whites, and sat at the corner of the coffee bar across where I can view everything. Shocker, there they were, the happy people, laughing, smiling, being annoying. I acted like I was on my computer but I just watched them, curious, with a slight twinge of judgment. Then walks in a lady to pick up a mobile order. I feel a little bad saying it but this lady was awkward. She was super dressed up but had a strange style. Not like her own style that was just different but like someone dressing up for an interview but missing the mark. Kind of a flowery dress, pearls, lots of makeup, big hair, heavy set. She seemed like she felt awkward, uncomfortable in her own skin. I have a total view of the whole place and I’m just observing. All of the sudden one of the annoying happy people gets up to get more coffee, walks by the lady, and says “you look really nice today”, and just kept going. That was it. I’m fairly certain they didn’t know each other. The regular walks back on over and sits down, and I watch the awkward lady just stand there waiting for her mobile order with a complete look of happiness on her face, which was very different than pre-compliment. Now I’m no longer judging, now I kind of like these people, but I noticed my own mood changed. As I sat there, I continued to watch people coming in and out. I watched two ladies get their drink orders mixed up, laughing, patting each other on the shoulder. I watched one guy jump out of his seat to help someone with their hands full open the door. I sat there and honestly just felt kind of weird and good about observations.
On a more personal level, two weeks ago, I’m driving home with Thomas, my 13 year old. World’s happiest kid. I’ve talked about Thomas before. Not everything comes super easy for Thomas and I think that’s part of his joy, he appreciates things more. So we’re driving, and I look over and he’s just smiling looking out the window. Me being the happiness seeker but often not finder that I am said “T, why the heck are you always so happy?”. He looks at me without thinking for an extra second and says “Dad, are you kidding me, I live in a great town, I have a great family, and I have little bit of freedom, what’s not to be happy about??”. Think about those words coming out of the mouth of a 13 year old, completely serious. I didn’t pry but I’d sure like to know what he meant by “a little bit of freedom”…I chose to leave it alone and just recognize what he said. I’ve thought about it a ton since and I’m just in utter amazement with the simplicity of his thought process. He doesn’t over complicate the happiness.
So as I sit here now and I think of these annoyingly happy people at Starbucks and I think about the simplicity of my happy Thomas, I wonder if I should learn more from them. My personal take away is to judge less, recognize kindness and happiness more, and change accordingly. I understand this is perhaps a bit on the mushy side of a Sunday thoughts but I can only tell how I feel inside that it has made a small dent in my judgement/observation of others. Looking out for people doing good things for others is much easier to see when you’re looking for it, it’s actually happening all around us all the time.
Have a great week ahead and be on the lookout.