It’s been a LONG time since I last posted and I wanted to catch you up on a few things before I get to today’s Joy Reflection. I am still living in the midst of redecorating chaos. We have tried to tackle too many things at once and ended up not finishing any of them. So I hope soon I can show you some pics of what we’ve been doing.
Today I thought I would reflect on an important lesson I learned as a teen: you can change the world with kindness.
When I was a senior in high school I got my first job (first of MANY!) as a page at the down town library. A page’s main duty was to re-shelve books and materials that were returned to the library.
I was assigned occasionally to the Periodical section where we got magazines and newspapers for patrons that could not be checked out, but could be photocopied. It sometimes involved a trip in the world’s scariest elevator that dropped about six inches every time you entered. And it took you down to the darkest basement, like a scene from Ghost Busters, but not as nice.
But that wasn’t even the hardest part of the job. My boss was.
The librarian in charge of Periodicals, Ms. Petoe, was an older woman who made it quite clear she did not like teens, especially lazy teen girls who caused her more work than help, and who wouldn’t properly handle the aging periodicals. She was the definition of a curmudgeon. Her grumpy and snide demeanor earned her the same responses from the young women she had worked with before me and a bad reputation among the pages.
I decided that I was going to “kill ‘er with kindness”. Hold on my motives weren’t that pure. At first, I was trying to prevent her from yelling at me.
I’d come in each afternoon and greet her as if I was so happy to see her and every time she replied with some snippy, rude response or command. I’d simply smile and say “Yes ma’am”. I tried to treat her with the utmost kindness and respect even when she wasn’t kind to me.
It took a while, but I began to notice that I ended up assigned to the Periodical section more often than the other pages. And Ms. Petoe wouldn’t bark at me quite so often. I wish I could say it all became warm and fuzzy between the two of us, but the most we developed was a good working relationship. And what started as a way to one up her ended up creating genuine respect and kindness for each other. What do they say? “Fake it till you make it”
I realized in a small way, being kind had changed the world for both of us. She learned to respect a teen girl and I learned to see things from her perspective.
Now there are some days when I forget this lesson and I am more like Ms. Petoe than I would care to admit. Yes, sometimes I’m the curmudgeon. Thankfully, some of those around me are also willing to “kill ’em with kindness” and I get reminded that I need to give kindness as well as receive. It’s amazing that even the littlest bit of kindness can lift someone who is feeling down.
I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing the progress my little back yard garden is making this summer and I hope to show you some actual produce, but we keep eating it.
Thanks for reading,
Celeste