Do you ever wonder what a person’s story is when you’re just observing them from a distance? I’m sitting in an airport right now and it’s a prime opportunity to “people watch”. As I look around at the faces, I see happiness, I see stress, I see anger, I see exhaustion. You see, I don’t tend to look at people and notice their clothes, their hair, their acne, their weight. I look at people and I see emotion, I see body language, I see life written all over their features and bodies. I’m not saying this is a good or bad way to observe those around us, but I do wonder what would happen if we paid more attention to the non-verbal messages people are sending, instead of the physical crap that doesn’t matter one iota.
There‘s a man sitting down the row from me, he’s looking at his phone and his face is cracking into a smile, his eyes are squinting from the smile. I feel joy as I watch his joy transform his face. His face is lined with years of life and experience and pain and joy. And so I sit here and I wonder who it is on the other end of that phone that brings that kind of happiness to his face. Then I wonder if that person on the other end of the phone KNOWS that they bring that kind of joy to him.
And that brings me to my deep thought. Do I tell people in my life that they bring me joy? Do people in my life tell me that I bring them joy? We are fairly quick to let people know when they bring us pain or anger, but do we tell them when they bring us joy?
We are surrounded by people in our lives, people who mean something to us. Why is it so easy to take that for granted? This is a somewhat morbid thought, but I’m here at the airport and anytime we put ourselves on a plane we take the risk that today could potentially be our last day. (Technically every day could be our last day) So I wonder if the people in my life know how much I love them, how much I appreciate them, how much happiness they bring to my days.
I look around at the people in this airport and I think about the ones who are heading to see someone they love, the ones who are having to leave someone they love. How blessed we are to have people we love. How blessed we are to feel the sting of missing someone. How blessed we are to feel the joy of being reunited with a loved one.
People have so many faces. I wonder what my face says to people. Am I sending the message to back off? Am I sending the message that I’m happy? Am I sending the message that I’m irritated? Am I approachable? Think of the hundreds of missed connections simply because our face or our body language says “don’t come any closer.”
It‘s hard to not think about people and the dynamics of human behavior when I’m surrounded by all sorts of people and behaviors. All too often, I spend my time focusing on the inconsequential details of life, like traffic while I’m driving, waiting in line longer than my patience allows, junk on tv that stirs anger and frustration, losing my keys for the hundredth time, or my stupid phone using autocorrect for a word that I don’t need correcting. So many stupid little things to focus on.
Do you know what the most valuable thing on this planet is? People. Beautiful, crazy, special, hurting, struggling, emotional, strong people. All these faces in this airport come with a story, a journey of pain and joy. We have to remember this, my friends. We have to remember that every human comes with a story. It doesn’t mean we have to accept bad behavior from that human, but it does mean that we can’t lose our compassion for the people of this planet.
I hope that man who was smiling at his phone is headed to see the person who caused that smile on his face. And I hope that you reading this will take the time to let someone in your life know that they made you smile today.
Life is short, and sometimes hard. People make it better. Try not to forget that the next time you’re sitting in a busy place, surrounded by tons of people living this same life as you.
Be Happy! Be Healthy!
Until next time!
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