Grocery Store Wisdom – Health Now, Wealth Forever

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By Nathan, on January 21st, 2014

I am called “Sunshine” by a number of my managers at work.  I believe that I have worked hard to earn this nickname.  A nickname should be earned, for good or ill.  I am not always sunshiny, how could I possibly be?  Life gives us all rain and snow and I am no different.  But I push any bad feelings to the side when I am at work.  I am Sunshine at work; regardless of how overcast my mood is outside of work. I try to give this insight to everyone: You, my family and my customers.

The methods I use are semantics, humor and quick quotes.  Little paradigms.  Nuggets of platitude. You know, bite size pieces of sunshine. For example, every cashier at every grocery store asks you (or should be) “Did you find everything you needed/wanted?” I follow up this question with “Fabulous! You MUST be having a great day then!” if my customer says anything approximating “yes”.  Then they almost always ask, “Why?” and I will hit them with, “It isn’t everyday that you find everything you wanted or needed!  And if you can do it here, you can do it anywhere.” At New Year, I also said, “That is a wonderful way to start the year!”  My personal mission is to lend just a moment of sunshine to anyone I encounter.  I don’t aim any higher than that.  And I don’t always accomplish it either.

We can choose our moods most times.  There are exceptions, of course, and personally, I am working very hard to prove my words to myself right now.  And when someone asks me how I am doing in return, I sometimes will say, “I can’t complain, and even if I could, I won’t. What would complaining solve?” if I am less than sunshiny.  There are bad days, but those are the days that teach us the most, if we choose to let them. I am the guy I despised when I was an Angry Young Man. The irony is not lost on me.

Every person who is in front of me is the most important person for the time that they are there.  Everything I say is 100% meant.  If I say “Thank you for coming in!” I really mean it.  If I tell you to have a great day/weekend/week/evening/night, I really mean it.  I am earnest in my gratitude and my wish for your well-being.  Even if you are less than pleasant to me.  Because, if you feel the need to abuse someone who is trying to help you, you are in need of some kindness; you are in some way miserable. Unbalanced.  In some way abused yourself.  You need my kindness even more. We all are worthy of redemption. We are all worthy of a choice.

I am just a cashier, but that doesn’t mean I can’t impart to you a little bit of wisdom, a little bit of kindness and a whole lot of gratitude.