you’ll think of me, and you’ll be smiling

title: you’ll remember – artist: patty griffin

For the time being, every Friday night at a spiffy little coffee house on Market Street in downtown Corning, New York, you can get far more than a caffeine fix served up with a smile. There might even be music and it might even be good. But, more importantly, if you’re willing to pay even just a little attention, you’ll have the immense privilege and pleasure of encountering someone making this world a better place, one beverage order at a time.

And it goes beyond beverages and service. It’s been a little while since I’ve seen someone set such a marvelous atmosphere in a place. People are people and they’re always going to do their thing on some level, but there is an unbeatable vibe casting a warm and exhilarating glow thanks to the man behind the counter. He bathes each customer in an easy kindness. And if you watch, more often than not, even in the briefest of exchanges, you can see them relax into it, walking away a little lighter, a little better thanks to that moment.

There is something truly splendid in being exposed to someone with an immaculate work ethic. But it is surely increased exponentially when they exercise this in a service-oriented position while maintaining an inherent kindness and grace the whole time, every time.

While I was already a fan of this particular barista, thanks to seeing him in action on several Fridays prior, the last two Fridays I’ve been in there have made me exceedingly glad such people exist. His family has been there these last two times and finding out these qualities extend well beyond his work life, quite frankly, make me glad to be alive. That there is this kind of good in the world and that it is not only being shared with anyone fortunate enough to bump into it, but that it’s being passed down to a subsequent generation is pretty awesome, really.

I know it may sound a bit cheesy and overwrought, and I’m sure there are imperfections and imperfect moments like we all have, but warm fuzzies and gratitude abound where a fount of intentional excellence and warmth and kindness exists.

So, please know, all of you, no matter where you are, and no matter what you’re doing, whether it seems immensely important or not, you’re effecting change. You’re making an impact. And, in many ways, even the smallest of gestures, even those things you do to better your environment, perhaps only for your own sake, carry a great deal of weight.

No life is small.

And even the smallest moments can be massive.