Morning (un)spoken conversations
The other day at the service center for a simple oil change, I was amazed to see that even at 7:00am the waiting area would be packed with people. No time to stop to get my usual Starbucks, so my frustrations for my morning wake up had me silent. Nowhere to really sit, I spotted an open seat next to an older gentlemen and man’s best-friend in his lap. He was a cute little dog that seemed to frown at people but its 7am; I felt that dog’s irritation. I pulled my phone out and went to social media like the rest of the world does. The guy sitting next to me with the dog was talking to the person next to him.
You can tell that the guy sitting next to him was getting bothered but didn't have it in him to say "stop talking to me. I just want to read my magazine," but his smirk and fake laughs said far more than the other guy could understand.
Suddenly, the older guy starts counting out loud so everyone looked. "1.2...3...4....5....6! It's amazing how it's 7 of us in here and you all are on your phones,” he said. Unbothered, people literally placed their eyes back to what they were doing before they were "rudely interrupted." The guy then began to just stare out the window. Being one of the people on the phone I wasn't surprised by his statement. I even had a conversation with a friend early about this same topic. I put my phone in my bag, forgetting I didn’t have no coffee, and began to have a conversation with him.
Sometimes it's great to just focus on your own thing. I could have been working, or responding to e-mails. Others could have been on social media, some could be watching the news or playing a game on their phones. But the irony is that we don't TALK with one another, in an open setting, without technology being the forefront. When I put my phone away and asked him how he was doing, the conversation for me became knowledge and understanding from another person’s perspective. A conversation that went from "I am fine " to "my wife is sick and I'm nervous."
AT THAT MOMENT:
We don't take time to smell the roses or appreciate a nice gesture. We are so consumed into our everyday lives that we rarely look up to see where we really are. We don't notice the people we truly interact with on a daily basis because social media has told us all we need to know about them. We don't notice the change in our friends and/or family or why certain things happened or changed. We don't take time to just say "hello" to someone and pause to listen for their response.
The conversation I had with this gentleman got so good that even people that were focused on their own thing was still ease dropping and chuckled every now and then. Some even joined the conversation with their own experiences. We meet people daily and we all have something to offer someone. We have the ability to help change or shape someone's lives. We live in the same world with different views and don't know the greatness or challenges people are facing. Your hello can brighten someone's day. Your hello can meet someone in distress. Your hello can show someone that you care. Your conversation can be the door to someone's success. Your hello can pay it forward.
In the end, we all had a great laugh but we all took something from his counting and pointing out the obvious: don't be so consumed with life that you don't lift your head up to at least say 'hello' and allow something to happen. And if it doesn't, that's fine. But never miss the opportunity to give advice or receive it as well. There’s still some Beautiful people in this world. And we all have contagious smiles! *So contagious I received a free coffee.
