Doesn’t it feel good to be nice to someone? It sure does…

Today I was at the grocery store and a nice older african american gentleman who worked there in the wine section asked if I needed any help. To be completely honest I was about to just say no thank you and keep walking but an instinct told me not to. I wanted to see if they had this bottle of Beaujolais that I really like (you know how I love wine). He was an intelligent and articulate older man that had a lot of good recommendations and I found we had a common love for wine. I told him about a particular bottle that they sold at another one of it’s stores that they didn’t have and he found 2 of the same brand, small 375ml bottles (fyi 2 of these make up 1 regular  750ml bottle). He said he’d give them both to me for the price of one 750ml that they charged at the other stores, which saved me all but maybe 7 bucks. Anyway it’s not about the money but about the way this person treated me and his manor and uncommon warmth.

I felt so good about this experience I decided to call in to the store 3 hours later to thank him for that experience. As simple as it sounds, he said that it made his day. Well in fact he made my day!

In our culture we are taught to not go above and beyond the normal humdrum of everyday life patterns. We are taught not to look people in the eyes or to acknowledge someone’s presence. In L.A. we drive our cars in traffic like little bubbles, in NYC we sit on subways and pretend the person next to us doesn’t exist. We are ok with the mundane status quo living that our parents brought us up to.

If you love me as much as I love you then I ask you to do this…as an exercise…engage or interact with someone you normally would never even think to. Whether it’s commenting on his/her awesome shoes, hat, choice, decision, action or whatever! It’s such a simple thing to do but put yourself out on the line and risk feeling embarrassed. No you don’t have to feel like you are hitting on someone to strike up a conversation about something, that’s how our culture thinks! It might sound a bit selfish to make yourself feel better by making others feel better but in fact it’s that kind of selfishness that we all need. Please come back and comment here as I’d love to hear about your own experience!

Ok I’m done with sounding like a self help book! The wine is kicking in!

Love you all!

VM