Janet McNeill

Another Toronto walking morning…

Yesterday I told a Telus customer service rep he’d made my day – because he had! Details not important (just cell phone administrivia) – but he really helped simplify my cell phone life for me, so out of my mouth popped the words “You made my day!” Later it occurred to me I might have made his day too, just by being so grateful to him, & saying so.

Then I was on a TTC (Toronto Transportation Commission) bus with a really helpful driver, & I missed my opportunity to thank him for being a good guy (his generous gesture was actually to another passenger, & I was down near the far end of the bus & exited out the rear door) – but I thought it would probably have cheered up everyone on the bus if I’d told him “Hey, Buddy – that was really nice of you!”

I think we humans are, at bottom, rather simple, really. We all want to feel – & be – appreciated – don’t you think? When we feel appreciated, we can then more readily notice & celebrate other people’s goodness. A lovely, un-vicious circle.

On this morning’s walk I was passing through a schoolyard where a long cement wall has been painted with a bright, colourful mural that says, “We are the change” – & I just loved seeing that. Gandhi, of course, memorably said, “We must be the change we wish to see in the world” – & evidently these young students are being taught that they are the change.

As are we all!!

It’s a complex & pretty seriously mixed-up world (feel free to nominate me for an Understatement of the Year award, hmm?) – but happily, some things are really quite simple. And as that self-declared “old fart” Kurt Vonnegut would say, “If that isn’t nice, I don’t know what is.”(1)

Janet

‘Quote of the day’ w. this post: “Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life.” – Sign on church billboard