There is a banana

This made my day. I was aggravated this morning. I was sitting in my coworker's office and the phone rang. I have a tendency to hate my phone. I narrowed my eyes at it in disgust.

To my surprise, it ended up being the funniest phone call I have ever received.

It was a colleague whose office is upstairs.

"I'm not going to make it in today," he said. "I was hoping you or someone in the office could do me a favor."

"Sure," I said, and reached for my pen to write down the information.

"Inside my office, there is a microwave," he said. "On top of the microwave, there is a banana."

I  stopped. The paper read "[Person's name]--office--microwave--banana." Odd.

"Okay..." I said.

"The banana is ripe. But it's only going to be ripe until about the end of today. And then it's going to turn to mush."

I tried not to laugh. I had absolutely no idea where this was going.

I nodded, even though it could not be seen.

"I'm going to need someone in the office to eat the banana," he said. "Maybe for a snack, or part of their lunch. It's a perfectly good banana, I'd just hate to see it go to waste."

Definitely not what I had expected. He had called into the office solely for this purpose. To offer a banana.

The entire exchange brightened up my day and made me loathe my phone slightly less.

Offering a free banana, an awesome act of kindness.

"Thank You"

It seems to be that the simplest acts of kindness can be the hardest and also the most significant.  At its core, saying "Thank you" is nearly effortless.  We say it for nearly everything.  A piece of candy, a tissue, a use of stapler, transferring a call.  Yet when the thanks is important, it can be nearly too daunting to manage.

I finally said "Thank you" to someone last week.  A mere stranger that I never forgot.  I had thought about it for months--well over a year.  I had meant to do it, but the thought of facing this person that I owed such gratitude shadowed my courage and kept me away.

I'm not sure what I expected out of it.  I didn't expect to see him at all, but he was there, working at the same restaurant.

I told him thanks.  And it was as if I gave him everything.

It is a unique past experience that he and I share, which upped the ante of thanks.

But at the base of it, giving thanks can be monumental.

I didn't think it would affect him.  Saying thanks was for me.  But it meant more to him than anything I could have fathomed.

Saying "Thank you." An invaluable act of kindness.

Breakfast Tacos, Part Deux

She did it again this morning. Brought us all breakfast tacos.

She claimed the reasoning was that she needed the individual salt and pepper packets that come with the tacos for her lunches, which makes her even nicer that she doesn't want recognition for her kindness. It is just who she is.

But today was a bit different. After she handed Jessica her staple bean and cheese taco, she turned to me, taco in hand, and said, "Bacon, egg, and cheese," knowing that is always my breakfast taco of choice.

I suppose when you work in an office, you can really decided the extent that you want to know your co-workers. I am fortunate to work in a place with kind people who care about each other and pay attention to the little things.

Our supervisor said it perfectly this morning as she walked back to her office: "Now, I'm going to take advantage of Laurie's kindness and have breakfast."

Let's discuss this over lunch

A couple weeks ago, a senior colleague asked me if I wanted to go to lunch with him and discuss what I want to do with my life. A very, very kind offer.

We went to lunch today and talked about various aspects of my life and where I wanted myself and career to be in the future.

It's all about making connections, he said. To sell yourself to other people and do the things that make you feel uncomfortable.

"Be prepared to go to a lot of lunches," he said. He explained that there was not a single person who has helped him in his life or career whom he did not first share a meal. He said there was something in our culture where breaking bread signified a kind of trusting relationship.

Naturally, he chose the time when we were eating lunch to explain this. Blatant yet subtle.

It was very kind of him to take time out of his busy schedule to have a simple lunch with me and discuss my life. He gave me exceptional advice and recommendations that I will cherish, but more than anything, it was the kindness in his offer that was so special.

Reminiscing

Ever since I wrote about the friendly mail carriers that I encounter daily, I have wanted to know more about each of them. They are all still unbelievably friendly and have the uncanny ability to make me feel better, even when I have been staring at a screen for so long that my brain feels numb.

"Well, hey stranger," he said. "Happy Friday."

Happy Friday indeed.

As always, we exchanged pleasantries, but today I probed a little further and found that my favorite mail services worker and I have something very specific in common. We were both collegiate athletes.

This is an area of my life that I do not revisit often. It is also one that provides a range of emotions that I may not still even be mature enough to handle. There was the pain, the sweat, the hardships that were too awful to discuss, and of course, dealing with the reality that it came to an end.

"It's something that you can't understand unless you experienced it," I said to him.

"You're right," he said. "But then you wish you could go back to that time and realize that once it's over, you're going to be doing this."

At that, we both laughed. Sitting in an office or delivering mail is infinitely less exciting--and less painful--than playing a sport, but that is where life takes most of us.

It was nice to be reminded of a time in my life that has passed. But it was even nicer to get to know a little bit more about my favorite mail carrier.

Cover me

It's raining today. Usually, this would make me want to run outside and stand in the open with my arms outstretched, but I wore flip-flops today and it is actually raining kind of hard. And I am in an office building, so no rain twirling for me.

I went walking on my lunch break. I always enjoy seeing the mass of umbrellas on a rainy day. Originally from a dry, hot climate, an umbrella had never been a necessity for me, and I only recently purchased one to have in my permanent possession.

As I looked around, I saw several people sharing their umbrellas. Friends, couples, random people shoved under the protective covering from the rain.

As this is not common practice for me, I always wondered how all these people had their umbrellas (how did they know it was going to rain?!) and were prepared for the wetness.

I have always fallen into the umbrellaless camp.

I therefore find it even nicer when someone offers their umbrella, a slight shelter, to someone without one.

Office Breakfast

I've noticed that the last few acts of kindness have involved food. Inherently, this brings about a discussion and debate as to the social implications of food, and why it has become a symbol of kindness in our culture. But this is not the place to debate social implications (or ramifications); rather, a place to admire the kindness of my co-worker.

She gave me crackers yesterday and this morning came to my desk and whispered, "Do you want a breakfast burrito?"

Uh, yes.

"I would love a breakfast burrito."

On her desk, she had several breakfast burritos, enough for all of us in the office. She even made it a point to order a bean and cheese burrito since Jessica cannot eat bacon.

As I was loading my burrito with salsa, I said, "That was so nice of you." The thought that she went to the restaurant to order herself a burrito, but made it a point to get one for each of us as well, I find to be overwhelmingly kind. To her it may have been nothing special, a small gesture at best, but it made so many of us a little bit happier this morning.

This is not the first time she has appeared with an armful of breakfast burritos. And every time she buys them for us, I always think of how this really is an act of supreme kindness.