Small Things

I have been cooped up inside for far too long so the kids and I went and did a couple errands yesterday. We ended at Starbucks where I used the last of my gift card. Sad sad day. I have to start paying for my own lattes again. I was standing at the register, bought the kids their respective organic milk in a box for a ridiculous price and ordered my vanilla latte and handed the cashier my reusable mug to put it in. The kids were being silly and my daughter had run off to the big chairs where we sit when we go in. I called to her to come back and please carry their milks to the table.

I had to pay a little extra on top of the remaining balance of the gift card so I handed the cashier a $10 bill. I was distracted by the kids, but not enough so that when he said “your change is $7.06″ and I looked down to put it in my wallet and was putting a quarter and a penny in my wallet instead of a nickel and a penny in my wallet. So I simply handed the quarter back to him, told him he gave me too much change and asked for a nickel. No big deal, it’s 20 cents but I noticed so I wasn’t just going to walk away and pocket money that wasn’t mine.

I turned around, baby boy on my hip, latte in my hand, blueberry coffecake in the other, and a woman I guess about my age sees me and says “Are you for real?” I looked at her and smiled, unsure of what she meant or why she said it. Then she said further, “You’re so together. You have two kids but are so calm. You’re prepared with your reusable mug, and you just returned money when you were given too much change. There aren’t a lot of people like you in the world.”

I don’t know that that is true. It’s not like I did something huge. I just pay attention to the small things, not just the big things. There are a lot of real people out there just like me doing little things in this world. And there are a lot of people out there doing a lot lot bigger things than I do.

It’s not often a stranger takes the time to stop and make another person feel good though. So she may have thought I was special for trying to make a difference in my small way, but I think she was special for saying something. Imagine if we all just decided once a day to stop and say something wonderful about someone we come across instead of just thinking it. Make someone’s day. It’s a small way to make a big difference in the world.