Loving Life

"Love life and life will love you back. Love people and they will love you back." Arthur Rubenstein

The hallway on our building's floor was being vacuumed, so I picked up our welcome mat and put it inside the apartment before leaving for work. My dear roommate put it back out later that day, but she had turned it around by mistake so that instead of a visitor seeing "Welcome," we see it when we leave. I didn't turn it around, because I kind of like the idea of stepping outside our home to a world that welcomes me.

Although I have bad days and I get blue like anyone else, for the most part I expect good things to happen each day. There are adventures that await me outside my front door. And while there are a few bad apples in any barrel, most people are good.

"You are really good at killing people with kindness," one of my colleagues at work said to me as we watched the customer walk out the door. The customer was at my coworker's cash register and started off with a bad attitude, and I walked over to see if I could be of help. My job is to make sure that each customer has a good experience in our store, but I also was concerned that my coworker not be treated unkindly. By the time I was done, the customer said to me, "Now you are making me feel really bad, because you are so nice and I was acting sort of like a b****." (Sort of?!) I smiled and told her it was my pleasure to help her.

I wasn't kind to her to make her feel bad. I was kind to her because that is who I am. But I will admit that I was happy to know she realized the error of her ways. And my coworker was happy because I stuck up for her and entertained her at the same time. One of the reasons I am good at my job, at working with the public, is because I do genuinely love people. Of course there are a few here and there that no one could ever please, and once in a while there are some who are just crazy mean.

Why not love life? As far as I know, this is the only life I will ever have and it's kind of stupid to not make the very best of it. Why not love people? The world is full of them, and it's kind of stupid for me to hate them. Why not believe what my welcome mat says as I step out the door each day?

I love it when things make sense. You get what you give.

Susan