I See You

Photo Credit:  hotblack from morgueFile.com

My sister-in-law, Kerri, shared a facebook post the other day that really caught my attention.  It was this:

“If there is any need that is perpetually unmet on this planet, it is the need to feel seen.  To feel seen in our humanity, in our vulnerability, in our beautiful imperfection.  When we are held safe in that, a key turns inside of our hearts, freeing us from our isolation, transforming our inner world.  If there is anything we can offer each other, it is the gift of sight.  ‘I see you’ – perhaps the most important words we can utter to another.”  - Jeff Brown, Love it Forward  

Three simple words.  I.  See.  You. 

It makes so much sense.  Doesn’t our day seem a little bit brighter when someone notices us or compliments us or sends a smile our way?  Someone we know.  A complete stranger.  “I see you” can be spoken or felt and it can make all the difference.

For two days in a row, we were in town running errands and decided on a Subway lunch on both days.  The first day, the lady helping me seemed a little preoccupied or tired, but courteously made me my delicious turkey, bacon, avocado sub on flat bread nonetheless.  I thanked her and wished her a good day.  She cracked what looked like a small smile in the right corner of her mouth.

The next day, I was craving the same sandwich…bacon-anything really.  Bacon on bacon.  Whatever, you know?  To my delight, the same lady was working.  I was given another opportunity to make her smile.  When I walked in the shop, she recognized me.  I told her that the sandwich was so super yummy yesterday that I had to come back for more!  She smiled an even bigger smile and said, “Now, that’s what I like to hear!  It means I’m doin’ m’job!” 

Wouldn’t you know…this go around, I noticed the sandwich was a little heavier.  People are certainly more generous when they’re happy, ya know?  I thanked her for the sub and she thanked me for coming.  “Come back soon,” she called out as I was leaving.

I’m pretty sure that she felt, “I see you” and I’m so glad.

It was a quick trip to Subway because I was hungry.  But, as Matthew Kelly reminds us, “There are so many ways to be hungry.  Most of the world goes to bed every night hungry for an honest word of appreciation.  Make sure the people in your life know how much you appreciate them.”

I’ve been thinking about my Sips of Sunshine readers lately.  I just want to take the time to say thank you.  Thank you for spending some of your time reading my blog.  Thank you for liking my Sips of Sunshine facebook page.  Thank you for signing up for an e-mail subscription on my website.  Thank you for sharing my posts.  Thank you for your words of encouragement and inspiration along this amazing writing journey.  I appreciate each of you.

I’ve enjoyed your responses to my summer challenges too.  I congratulate each and every one of you who tried the 24-hour complain-free challenge as well as the challenge to come up with one hundred gifts and blessings found in the most routine of your days.

Please tell me you are ready for a third challenge, because here it comes!  I challenge you to “see” five people each day for a week.  And, what I mean by “see” is that you make the time to smile at or compliment five strangers a day for a whole week.  I’m 100% certain that you can do it.  Feel free to share your stories with me.

Like Matthew Kelly says, “The good we do is never lost; it never dies.  The good deeds of your life will live on in other people, in other places, in other times.”

I love the concept of paying it forward, so that makes me over-the-top curious about and eager to read Jeff Brown’s book called, “Love it Forward,” where “he reminds us that we are never alone in this beautifully relational human dance.  We become the love we have received, and we love it forward to those we touch.  We are each here to participate in this sacred dance, stepping on each other’s toes and turning each other toward God one clumsy step after another.”

I just love that!

Here’s to us, dancing through this life together and taking the time to notice one another.  Three simple words.  I.  See.  You.

Have a wonderful week, Sunshines!  No Sips next week.