It's the Little Things

I'm the kind of server who will run after you in the unfortunate event you left behind your tablet, laptop, phone, keys, credit card, a pair of gloves-- even those leftovers that you so adamantly had me remember to wrap up for you.  Random acts of kindness.  Things like this come full circle, or so we hope.


A few years back, thanks to a friend, I got the chance to fly out to Seattle to spend the week-- gallivanting mainly.  Day drinking.  Shopping.  Day drinking some more.  I took myself on a tour of the city.  Fun little nooks and crannies to explore there.  I even had so much fun that at the end of one night I left my cell phone behind.

I had asked to charge my phone behind the bar, and definitely left without it, genius that I am.

Without my cellphone, I felt naked.  Like something huge was missing.  There I was, losing my mind, actually sleepless in Seattle without my precious lifeline.

A month later I received a package in the mail.  Guess what?  My cellphone and its charger, sent all the way home from Seattle.  God Bless whoever sent it.  Some of the shadier characters that I know in this state would have probably sold it on eBay, or pawned it off on Gazelle.  Anything to make a buck and watch out for the good of oneself.  I think it is too often we consider the benefits we personally can reap instead of the good for all, or anybody else for that matter.  Today is a "me first" and "what can you do for me" kind of society.  The fact my phone found its way back to my hands absolutely blew my mind.
 


A lesser fortunate experience I've had-- also in a bar-- would be related to coat checking.
I hate checking coats.  I had always heard too many horror stories.  Upon the offer of placing my coat in the employees' coat room at a "once upon a time regular drinking hole" of mine, I jumped at it.
Seems like a safe bet, right?



Wrong.  When it came time to collect my belongings and head home, my coat turned up missing.  Not an expensive coat, but a GOOD coat in the middle of a bone-chillingly cold and snowy season.  Let me tell you, there is a very special place in hell for people who steal coats in the dead of winter.  Right next to the pedophiles and the rapists, I'm sure. Apparently you can't win 'em all.




Actions come full circle...which is why I couldn't be too upset about the coat; see: karma.  I try my best to do what is expected of me, and in the very least to treat others the same way I would expect to be treated.

So I'll continue to run after people who leave belongings behind at my tables.  I'll make it a point to check up on those I haven't seen in awhile.

Kindness is about the little things that don't matter, that matter the most.  It's the little things that are often overlooked, or even mistaken for some other intention.  They will all catch up one day.  So hold a door.  Pick up the scarf that fell off the back of a chair.  Say something so simple as "thank you".  You're only given one life, so live it well. 

For the moment, keep paying it forward.

 

-Malia Etienette

Photo Credit:
Lost Phone:  www.blog.yesheis.com
Finders Keepers: www.assaugm.wordpress.com
Coat Check: www.peoplewhodeserveit.org
Karma: www.supermarkethq.com
Kindness: www.acihealthyu.wordpress.com