Sometimes it’s tempting to be a grouchy pain in the butt, but I (and I hope I’m not the only one), sometimes have to remind myself that being a grouchy pain isn’t any fun, and that I need to be sweet, because everyone deserves that.

The other morning, a woman walked into work with a cane, looking to be fit for a pair of sneakers.  We got to chatting on the fit stool, and as it turned out, she’d battled with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), and she was dealing with a flare-up of sorts, and had been using the cane for a month.  We chatted for a while, because CFS is similar in its manifestation to Fibromyalgia, which my mother has struggled with for years.  So we found her a pair of shoes, and we looked for shirts that would be a nice fabric for her to be able to wear when her CFS was flaring up.  Took like 30 or 40 minutes out of my day, and I thought nothing of it.

As I was helping her find a few things, I’d gotten cold, so I’d pulled a Nike hooded half-zip jacket off the rack, and wore it around while we poked around for some things for her to wear.  She’d complimented the color.

So a few days later, I roll into work, and there was a bag with my name on it.  Inside the bag was a jacket, and a note for the name of a specialist who may be able to help my mom.  And the jacket.  Wow.  Whoa.

Beside the fact that the jacket is warm, cute, and has the most adorable little hood thing on top, I’m going to wear this around as a reminder to be nice, even when you don’t feel like it. Not because people will buy you jackets, which is totally cool too, but because clearly, our chat meant enough to this kind lady to return to the store, go out of her way, and take time to put a smile on my face. At any rate, send a lot of good vibes her way, so we can get her back running like she wants to do 🙂