I just witnessed something that stopped me in my tracks and gave me goose bumps..
I got an early start this morning, and set up to work from a local coffee shop in my community. I dove into my work and begin to work through my to-do’s. A couple hours went by, and I noticed an older, african american woman in a wheelchair came into the shop. She had several tattered bags strapped to the back of her chair and she rolled up to the counter. It seemed to me as though all of her belongings were strapped to her chair. The Barista greeted her warmly, and the women simply asked for a cup of water. The Barista said of course, filled her cup, and she turned and rolled back through the line of people all on their phones waiting on their drinks to be made and for their work days to begin. As she made her way out the door, I noticed an older man who had been working all morning from his laptop look up, and then get up from his table to go after her. A few moments later, the man returned, holding the door open as this woman rolled her chair back in. The man walked ahead of her and moved a table and a chair away to make room for her to sit directly beside her at his table. He made her comfortable, closed his laptop, moved his chair to face her, and just began to talk to her. He asked about her day, her chair, her family. Then he got up from his chair leaving her at the table, until he returned with a large cup of coffee for her.
They sat and talked for several minutes, laughing and enjoying a cup of coffee. In this moment, I saw the walls of age, race, and socio-economic status come down… It was beautiful.
Without being obvious that I was ease dropping, I listened as the man talked about his life and his faith. I was amazed by this simple act of compassion. This simple act of pushing the pause button in life to have a real conversation in a coffee shop.
I quickly realized that I was not the only one ease dropping as a noticed a young man standing outside of the window looking in at the man and the woman talking and drinking their coffee. He just stood there awkwardly for a minute, until finally he decided to come in. As he walked in, he walked straight to the table and looked at the older man, held his hand out, and just said, “thank you.” They shook hands, and the young man walked out. Apparently, this man’s act of compassion was making an impact on more than just me…
As they finished their coffee, the man shook the woman’s hand and walked her to the door. He held the door open for her, waved goodbye, and then returned to his table to resume his work.
As I watched this scene unfold, I had to ask myself two questions…
First, Why isn’t this scene more common? It was so uncommon that it stopped me in my tracks, and caused a young man just stand in amazement outside a coffee shop window… Why? Why is this scene so rare and uncommon?
Second, Am I too busy? Unfortunately, I was a lot more like the people in line waiting for their coffee on their devices than I was like the older man who stopped his work to acknowledge the other humans around him. What would life look like if I scheduled margin in my calendar? Margin that gives me the ability and permission to look up from my computer to see people.
So, I encourage you today to simply look up. Look up to see the opportunities that may otherwise be hidden by the devices that we carry and the schedule that we are trying to maintain. Look up.
Well, I had to share. Honestly, I think the older man made just as big of an impact on me (and the guy standing on the sidewalk looking in) as he did on the woman.