Another, more different post

So. I’ve been hacking away at writing for the past couple of days. Started I think three different items, all on different topics, all basically boiling down to me complaining about various items I had encountered in either the news (or more precisely the comments to a news item) or in real life. My sort of goal with all of this is to try and get better at expressing things as complete items instead of just hanging complaints – and that’s where all my other writing fell apart. The complaints are there, but no solution or even resolution to the items.

Instead, this morning on my way to work I stopped into my favourite local coffee shop. I go in a couple of times a week and almost always get the same thing. When I walked in the woman behind the counter just immediately started getting my drink ready, greeted me with a smile and a cheery hello, and struck up a brief conversation. Nothing important, just standard coffee shop talk – weather, work week, etc. I realized I see her several times a week and still don’t know her name (curse my shyness!), but she brightens up my day every time I go in.

I usually tip pretty generously for my morning hot chocolate, but this time I decided to double up and just run it to a nearly 100% tip (while still making it easy to break into change and such). Her smile and heartfelt thank you were more than enough compensation, and I got to head off to work feeling a bit better about my day.

I guess my point is that it’s easy to complain, but it’s just as easy to be kind and generous and friendly. I thankfully can afford to give a bit extra to show my appreciation these days, but there have been times where I couldn’t and the same woman was exactly as friendly every time. So her being kind prompted me to be generous, which then made us both happier for the day. Maybe doesn’t work out like that every time, but does it ever really hurt to be nice?