Appreciation!

It was 8:00am the morning of my 3rd wedding anniversary and my face already held a smile that I couldn't get rid of. God is so good and His blessings through marriage are beyond words...

My apologies to all of you who are anticipating what might follow this captivating opening sentence, but this entry happens to be about a parking lot.

As I parked my car in the faithful lot that daily awaits me, I was pleased with how spring-like the day already felt. My focus quickly shifted to a tent and balloons in the corner of the lot, smack dab in the middle of my path. Honestly, my first thought was that Nationwide must set up a tent in the lot of each employee to recognize their wedding anniversary... but I quickly shook my head back to reality as a man signaled for me to approach his "station."

While he proudly directed my attention to the free coffee, juice, water and doughnuts, I learned that this was a simple act in honor of "Customer Appreciation Day." These people wanted to give ME a treat for parking in THEIR parking lot. As if I don't pay a monthly free or something? Is it their way of attempting to justify the outrageous parking prices? Maybe... but I think they were just trying to be nice.

For some sinful reason, I wanted to shrug them off with a hushed "thank you" and go on my way since I already had hot tea (from home) in my hand. I noticed a couple other individuals say "Ah, thanks anyway, I gotta get to a meeting." The next guy stated, "I can't have a doughnut!" for whatever reason. One guy looked so shocked by the "free" starbucks coffee that he couldn't do anything else but head straight towards it for his portion, without saying a word. Besides the few voices I heard, I saw many re-direct their entire route to avoid this tent that was not expected in their morning routine. I'm not sure what to make of all this, but i know that people have trouble with free things and with changes in their schedule/expectaions. Although brief, it was an interesting "people study" to observe. To defy everything I love about a routine, I approached the tent, thanked the people repeatedly, made a giggly comment about the weather, complimented the convenience of their lot, said "Hi" to a few fellow parking neighbors, grabbed a bottle of water, filled up a cup of fresh, piping-hot coffee, and poured my tea out in the grass.

What a wonderful start to a day... an Anniversary day at that. A simple act of kindness can go a long way. I wish we had random "People Appreciation Days." Wouldn't there would be a few more smiles?

Oh, and although the flowers from my husband far outweighed the "smiley people tent"... the event was still worthy of a blog :)

Tall 'n Proud

I apologize for my lack of new posts... Apparently, I have been too busy taking pictures of Piper to write about her :) For now, as my words are few, I will leave you with her most recent head-shot...

'Til next time!