The Importance of a Smile: A Thank You to my Staff
I spent the late hours of last night and the early hours of this morning cleaning. My Otto was sick last night. Violently and grossly ill in the way only a dog can be. (I now better understand the phrase "sick as a dog.") The result was that I was late to work, stench still in my nostrils despite a scalding shower, hands raw, eyes grainy. And of course, the person in front of me on the highway rode their brakes the entire way to work. AUUGGHH. I needed a do-over, and I wasn't getting one.
I usually try to "ohm" my way through this sort of thing. Or sing along to the radio. Neither worked this morning.
You know what made me smile this morning? I walked in to work from the parking garage chatting with another librarian. When we got to the building, my staff member working the desk at the entrance to the building smiled and said, "Good morning." That made me crack a smile as I greeted him in return, and when I got to the top of the stairs, the two folks at the main circ desk greeted me with a sprightly "Good morning!" It was almost as if they had choreographed it. But then they did the same merry act for the next person up the stairs.
You know what? That was all it took to change my mood from Grumpymuffin to Things Are Looking Up. By the time I applied my key to the lock on my office door, I was smiling, too. A big thank you to my staff who do this for all our patrons and coworkers every morning. It's not easy to make mornings look friendly and to engage busy folks with worries on their minds, and you all do a great job of it.
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