my grocery store fairy godmother (and the five words that changed everything)
Tell me I'm not the only one who has cried in public recently, in an unlikely place.
Thanks to all of you who responded back after my recent video that I'm now going to title, “Ellen Cries at the Green Bananas: Stranger intervenes.”
If you missed it in our Instagram stories, it's short (under 2 mins) and you can tune in here:
I was having a tough week trying to juggle all the things and feeling like the world's worst juggler.
I know I'm not alone in feeling this way recently. I was at the store with one of my children, trying to reclaim a sense of control over life by choosing the PERFECT bananas, and fighting back tears because my system felt just beyond overwhelmed.
We'd passed by a woman earlier in our store visit, and I could feel her looking at us for just a second longer than felt socially acceptable. I brushed it off - maybe she was checking out my cute mask, I thought. It was really cute - an Etsy mask I bought at the beginning of the pandemic thinking, “If I'm going to be wearing this until Covid is over in a few weeks, I'm doing it up in style!” Ha. Ha.
A few moments later, I saw out of the corner of my eye that she was circling her cart back our way. I instantly felt a pit of dread in my stomach and felt panicky: What had I done wrong? What's the bad news?
Our brains are wired for the bad news right now, so I was braced for it.
She looked at me and said: “Ma'am?"
I held my breath: “Yes?”
And the next five words she spoke changed everything for me.
“You look so beautiful today.”
The tears were coming in fast and hot, so I quickly responded with something along the lines of: “I'mhavingaroughdayyouhavenoideahowmuchthismeansthankyouimgoingtogocrysomemorenow.”
She smiled, and moved right along.
It took this woman five seconds (and probably some courage) to speak those words, but the impact was massive.
Stepping out from her own internal world and making the decision to brighten mine through this seemingly simple act had huge ripple effects for me: I felt seen, connected, and reminded that I'm more than just a flailing (but not failing) juggler: I'm also a person.
I don't know how her world felt for her that day, but it's safe to say it hasn't been easy for any of us lately. She was probably carrying her own mental load through the store as well, and I bet the act of reaching out to me made her load feel lighter, too.
Since that day, I've been paying it forward – want to join me?
A friend who saw our video on Instagram texted me a couple of days later to share that my grocery store fairy godmother had inspired her to roll down her window and yell, “YOU'RE DOING GREAT!” to a runner she was driving past that day.
Isn't it amazing that we have the power to give this incredible gift of feeling seen and connected to another person, with only a few very simple words? It takes zero dollars and almost zero effort, and has massive, long-lasting positive impacts for both you and the person you're celebrating. Can we say that about anything else in our world right now?
It sorta feels like magic, but at its core, it's just being human. It's what we do. When we connect with each other, amazing things happen.
