Sunday, August 7, 2011

Breaking the Pattern

Wake up. Get ready for work. Go to Starbucks. Read Bible. Go to work. Get annoyed. Get hugs from kids. Feel better. Go to lunch. Go back to work. Go home. Eat dinner. Watch baseball. Rinse and repeat. This is the pattern of my life.

Tonight, I was doing what so many people have done a thousand times. Sitting in my seat, I was watching as the flight attendant slowly made her way down the aisle to ask what I wanted to drink.

“Drink?”

“Club Soda.”

“Drink?”

“Pepsi.”

She had her pattern down.

When she reached my row I was greeted like all the others.

“Drink?”

But for some reason I suddenly cared about her. That sounds so weird, but I did. I wondered if anybody cared about what she wanted in this moment. So I broke the pattern.

“How are you?”

“We have Pepsi, Sprite, Diet…. Wait. What did you say?”

I swear that’s what she said. The lady next to me laughed.

“I said, ‘How are you?’ I was just wondering if you were having a good night.”

She cocked her head to one side and looked at me as if she had just woken up from a dream.

“Uh. I’m good. How are you?”

“I’m doin’ all right, thank you. Can I have a Dr. Pepper please?”

“You got it.”

Then came the fun part. She turned to get the orders from the row across the aisle and this is what she said.

“Good evening. How are you? What can I get you to drink?”

This time I laughed. This only went on for a couple rows at most before I began to hear, “Drink?” again, but for a few moment we had all been transformed back into people instead of just cargo.

I wish you could have been there because I could never describe the change lasted for only a minute. One simple question asked in kindness brought the atmosphere of heaven to Earth for a fleeting moment. It was brief, but the contrast was undeniable. The next time she came by she asked if I wanted some pretzels. All I said was, “No thank you.” but she smiled as if I had called her beautiful.

I will never forget the look in her eyes. It made my hungry to love people more, to look for opportunities for kindness. It reminded my that sometimes I miss living in the midst of my life. I get lost in the pattern of "the normal". Why don't I start up conversations with strangers more? Is it the fear that they will think I am weird. Do I use the excuse of politeness and convince myself that I don't want to bother anyone? Why don't I do things I've never done more often? Consistency is a good thing until you become consistently mediocre. There are great things lying within our reach every day if we can open our eyes to the possibilities. It was nice to be reminded that there is a beauty that can only be found in breaking the pattern.

No comments:

Post a Comment