to a Few Kind Words
How can I even begin to thank you
for these? Their power is indescribable,
how just a few words, sometimes it could
be from a perfect stranger, sometimes from
the one person you believe to be the cause
of let’s say a month of worries, at least, can
with but a moment of attention along with a
few peaceful words, perhaps they are recon
ciliatory, perhaps just complimentary, some
times it might just be “Hey, how are you
doing in here, fella?!” can in one fell swoop
eliminate all of your woes. You tell yourself
through it all to think positively. You promise
yourself you’re going to make this day a beau
tiful experience. You swear that in order to
displace anxiety and grief and despondence
that you’ll be gracious and full of gratitude.
And sometimes it works. Sometimes it does
actually work. But most often it doesn’t. And
then out of nowhere you become the recipient
of a few kind words, directed at you, sometimes
they are all but innocuous. And as your hero ex
its your office, or your room, or as you pass each
other after the brief exchange, say, on a sidewalk,
or at the grocery store or at Target, having been
at first taken aback that you’ve run into a friend
or acquaintance, or bristling at first because a
stranger has approached and begun to speak –
when you go your separate ways, a smile crawls
all the way across your face and you feel a wave
of relief as whatever that’s crept into your system
and sort of rotted there for however long its been
gets somehow released by an exhalation or two
through that broadening smile, and life is good
again, it’s a beautiful day, you feel your mojo
and your motivation seeping back and there’s
an electricity inside of you that you’ve missed
for too long, and there’s a bounce in your step
that you thought you lost thanks to that ache
in the bottom of your back that you somehow
no longer feel . . . .
