How Important Is It?

One morning I went to Starbucks to get my husband and myself a cup of coffee. After spending most the night and the wee hours of the morning awake with our sick three-year-old, I felt we deserved it! Since it was a Saturday morning there were plenty of people in line with me. After ordering I stood there patiently waiting for my jolt of espresso. A woman behind me asked the man behind the counter if a vanilla latte was on the way, "Yes, I have it...it'll just be another minute." "I'm already late for a meeting, don't bother, don't make it!" And she walked out the door. Soon after, my drinks were ready. While I collected my coffees another woman walked up to the counter for the second time and snapped at the busy barista, "This is getting a little ridiculous!" Now I was there long before her and I waited for maybe seven minutes from the time I ordered my drinks to the time I got them in my hot little hands. I looked the barista directly in the eye and said, "Thank you, I really appreciate you, have a great day."

A recent event in my life has shown me to look at things and ask myself, "How important is it?" Our infant was in the ICU and hospital for eight days with what turned out to be botulism, an extremely rare illness. We are so thankful that he made a full recovery. In retrospect, how important is it that it took me three minutes longer to get my coffee that morning? It's meaningless. How important is it that I show compassion toward the barista who is most likely overworked and underpaid? Extremely important. If you find yourself in a frustrating experience, please take a moment to ask yourself, "How important is it?" And please remember to treat everyone with compassion because you never know what life experience they are going through.