People are good

Today I ran into two strangers.
It was nice. They were nice.
We knew absolutely nothing about each other, but chatted as though we were old friends.
I talked longer than I normally would have.
I like to rush from one place to another, and if I don't know you, I don't like to do small talk.
I'm just not good at it. I don't know what to say, and I don't like feeling like I'm taking their time that they'd rather do something else with.
But, today was different.

I attended a funeral of an old neighbor. She's not old. She was actually born the same year as my Dad....and he's not old! She was young and had little grandkids...the oldest I don't think quite into the double digits yet.
She was a "people person". She could talk to anyone, anywhere and you rarely left seeing her without a lengthy chat. But that's what made her so great. And that's what we all remember about Sandra Sprague McCormick. She was genuine, warm, concerned and a happy person.
I was inspired by that today. I wanted to be a warm and genuine and concerned person....someone who stopped being so concerned with my time schedule.

I was slower today.
I took time to live in the moment.
People were more important than tasks.
And it felt really nice to have that order and priority. It felt right.

People are good. People have something good about them. When you start out with a smile and a warm conversation starter, it's a little hard not to respond in kind to that.
Kindness is contagious, and Sandra brought that desire out of me.
I tried it today and it was nice.
I think I'll try it again tomorrow.