Starbucks

I was sitting at Starbucks, one of my favorite places on earth, yesterday. Pearl and I where reading as one of the baristas was cleaning some of the tables and counters near us. Pearl and I were sitting next to the “sugar and cream” table (not the best table to have in the room but Starbucks is Starbucks so I’ll take that table over my desk any day), and as we were deep in thought on whatever it was we where working on, we heard a load crash, and a distinct yelp that only an embarrassed/scared/frustrated young lady can make in a moment of distress. I was expecting to discover drinks on the floor, on her, on other customers, or maybe some broken glass or object smashed into a million pieces, but as we followed her eyes we noticed she was looking at a pile of sugar packets that had scattered all over the floor, it was about 200 or so sugar packets, looking like some abstract piece of stain glass art, a swirl of pinks, yellows, whites, and browns.

She embarrassedly knelt down, as a room full of coffee connoisseurs stared.

Now I didn’t do anything major, nothing that “cost” me anything, I debated if I should continue to read or help. I didn’t want to embarrass her or myself, and had no desire to feel awkward, but after a few moments of talking with myself I simply knelt down next to her and helped, placing the Splendas where the Splenda where hanging out, the raw sugar back with the other raw sugars, the ‘organic sugars” with it’s other hippy sugars, helping to reinforce the sugar segregation issues yet other day. As the girl and I knelt on the floor we talked.

She’s leaving today for college. Studying at Temple in Philly, Anthropology to be to exact. She’s nervous about moving in with new girls, a new school, a new everything, but her nervousness is mixed with excitement and energy. We had a good 5-minute conversation. Once all the sugars had made it back to their individual sugar worlds we smiled and I sat back down and picked my book up. Nothing-big right? Just picking up some stupid sugar packets, and a little small talk.

A couple minutes later my phone let me know someone was wanted to talk to me, so I stepped outside to watch the snowfall (all three glorious inches) and to talk. When I returned to my seat 3 little cards where waiting for me, 3 cards for any drink in the store. Was my simple action worthy of 3 drinks? But she was not done saying thank you, a minute pasted and a 4th card showed up on our table. This time it was the “M.U.G. award.” The card contained a cool Starbucks “mug” pin, and as I opened it a personalized message scribbled on the inside.

My new Barista friend had written “Hey, no one every said customers couldn’t get these! Thank you so much for jumping in and helping with my little spill. It’s customers like you that make this job worth it. – Keep spreading the love, we need more people like you in the world! Your Barista, Megan”

All I did was help her pick up packets of sugar. I didn’t need 3 free drinks and the “Moves of Uncommon Greatness” (MUG) pin.

It was just sugar packets.

But to Megan it was more. I don’t know her story, her anxieties, her fears, and I don’t need to.

When was the last time someone stopped to help? Stopped to listen? Asked her about her life? Her world? When was the last customer to talk with her and not be complaining about their drink, their bill, their unhappiness?

Once again, it was only sugar packets, but for Megan it was more, it was “Moves of Uncommon Greatness.”

We can all be MUG people, we can all have moves of uncommon greatness.

May we be these people. May we notice the sugar packets, the small things, the simple things.

It’s these things that change the world, that shape culture, that show people they matter

To me it was just simple sugar packets, but to Megan it wasn’t

We can change the world, one sugar packet at a time.

God, please help us see other Megans, and may we help with their “sugar packets.”

PS – below are some pics of our snow, it was only here for 18 hours, but 18 hours is better than no hours.

Here it comes!!

The backyard

Zuri and Captain went nuts in the snow, so we took them to the local dog park to play their little hearts out, and they did!

The park was full of people sledding, building snowman, and this one really cute kid greeting other kids snow men.

Zuri crashed when we got back home, but about 30 seconds after this pictures she was bouncing around again. She's got soooo much energy!