Spots of Happiness

It's a sleepy sort of Thursday at work for me.  What happens is, I get work to do in bursts and when it rains, it pours-- so I'm extremely busy for a couple of days.  Then I turn it in to my boss, who checks it and revises it and gives it back to me so I can make the actual revisions and do whatever the next steps are.  But in that limbo time when my boss has my work and I'm just waiting, there's nothing for me to do.

And, just like any good New Orleans afternoon should feature, the clouds roll in and build up and get dark, and in our mostly natural-light office, we find ourselves staring out the windows and thinking of naps (or at least, I do).

Normally I read whatever book I've brought, or mess around on Facebook or Tumblr, but because of how dark it's getting outside, I thought I'd share a little spot of happiness from yesterday that I'm honored to have been a part of.

I was on phone duty, and I got a call from a man who was explaining how the company he was with had just moved here to New Orleans after 30 years in Atlanta.  He was calling other local agencies to see if they were interested in forming partnerships or something along those lines.

"First of all," I said, "Welcome to New Orleans!  Secondly, let me go see if our vice president is available-- she'll be able to help you more with this than I will."

"Wow," he said, just as I went to put him on hold.  I stayed on the phone another moment.  "You're the first person who has welcomed us to the city!"

I chatted with him for a bit about how New Orleans really is a friendly city-- all the stuff I love about here-- and then transferred him.

Of course, it was the smallest of small moments, but he sounded genuinely happy.  I imagine he had been calling lots of places over the course of the day, and I imagine he'd been getting either very dry transfers or quick, "Sorry, we're not interested", followed by a goodbye.  I'm only imagining, though.  But I'm just glad that I was able to add a small spot of happiness to this man's day.

For as long as I can remember, it's been my goal to provide these spots of happiness to others.  I'm not talking about one random act of kindness a day-- I'm talking about constant acts of joy and kindness so that they're not random.  When it's a way of life, it's not relegated to just a chance occurrence.  When you constantly provide these spots of happiness, I like to think that all the spots come together and make a much bigger phenomenon of Goodness that help to dab out some of the darkness of the world.

Too philosophical and maybe even a bit maudlin?  Maybe.  Sorry.  I'm just thinking of how I can increase the spots that I attempt to add.  I hope you find yourself both giving and experiencing spots of your own, and of others.  I hope that I can provide you with some spots of happiness.  I hope this blog post makes you smile, and I hope that you, my friend, are having a wonderful day.