Ripples

My husband is a truck driver. A few years ago I traveled with him for almost a year. As you can imagine, being together 24/7 in a truck cab about the size of a large walk in closet created some interesting situations. We had to do some major creative problem solving to keep from killing each other. We couldn’t walk in to the next room or take a walk or any of the things we had done before when upset.


One week he had been temperamental for at least three days. Everything I said or did annoyed him. Finally tired of it I asked him what the matter was. He snapped back that he was tired and hungry. My response was immediate. “Oh, I guess I missed that memo.”

He stared at me, “What are you TALKING about?”

“You know, that memo, the one from God that states its O.K. to be rotten to people when we’re hungry or tired. Thanks for letting me know. That will make my life so much easier from now on.”He looked sheepish and started being nicer immediately.

Now, I’m not sharing this to snitch on my husband although that is a perk! I’m sharing this because there are so many of us that think being nice to people is an option. If we are hungry, tired, busy, in a hurry, upset, hurting or any number of things that cause us to be having a bad day it’s okay to be mean.

Okay, we aren’t perfect. There are times when we are feeling down for what ever reason. I get that. But if we can’t be pleasant, can’t we at least NOT be rotten to those around us? What gives us the right to dump our “miserable” on someone else’s lap? Have we all forgotten the “do on to others as you would have others do on to you”?

Have you ever dropped a rock in a body of water and seen the ripples? They start small and get bigger and bigger and bigger. When we drop our pebble of “miserable” in we make those around us miserable and they make the people around them that way and so on and so forth.

This works the other way too. We can make ripples of happiness by dropping our “nice” pebbles in the puddle. If you don’t believe me, try this experiment. Pick a day and during that day make eye contact with everyone that you come in contact with and smile. That’s it. Look in their eyes and smile at them. Do this to people you pass on the sidewalk or in a store or even at your job. I think you’ll be really amazed at the things that will happen.

After all, we are all taking this human journey together, aren’t we? It seems to me that being nice to each other is the least we can do. That’s the view from my side of the street, what’s yours?