Starfish and Strawberry Lemonade

Helping people is really cool. I wish I had a better way to say that and I could have thought of a more clever choice of words but I didn’t. Because I think helping people is really cool and that’s it. I also think that helping the people you are able to help as you live your life is something everybody should aim for.

I work at a food restaurant in the mall. It’s small and generally uneventful but one day at work, I was on the register just cleaning the counter and waiting for a customer when a woman walks up and orders a strawberry lemonade. I make the drink, cash out her order and tell her to have a nice day. As she is putting the straw in her drink on the other side of the counter, my manager Vanessa (who is extremely friendly), casually greets her and asks how she is doing today. The woman responds with “Honestly, not very good”. The woman then proceeds to tell me and my manager about how she had very recently lost her son.

The child was young, less than 5 years old. She goes on to say that she just came from the funeral home where she had to make arrangements for her child’s funeral. She went on to add that no one told her that it only gets harder and how it’s becoming hard to see a point in continuing this struggle. Vanessa leaves her position and goes out to the front of the store where she gives the woman a hug. Then she gives her her phone number and tells the woman if she ever needs a person to talk to or pray with, she can call her. The woman thanks her, they exchange a few more words, then both go their separate ways. My manager saw the opportunity to help someone and did what she could; she did what she should.

Everyday things happen to us as well as others and we often have no idea what other people are going through. But all it takes is one moment. One moment where you decide to not be selfish. One moment where you decide to leave your store and talk to someone who is begging to be heard. One moment to be a little nicer to the strangers that you encounter. One moment to see that sometimes it isn’t all about you. One moment to realize that other people are a lot more like you than not and that those little moments of kindness are all that are going to be left to your name once you’re gone.

I try to tell myself that I should give a little bit of love to somebody every day. It doesn’t matter if that love is found in laughter, or kindness, or hope – it just needs to be given. Because maybe there is someone who needs it more than I’ll ever understand. And if I could be that person who took that one moment to help somebody else, then that’s pretty cool.

I was listening to “Starfish and Coffee” by Prince the other night, a song about a girl named Cynthia rose who is mentally disabled and says she has starfish and coffee for breakfast. He goes on to say “If you set your mind free, baby maybe you’d understand”.  Our words and our actions can mean so much to other people which is why we all need to look out for those “moments” where we can help other people. Those moments where two different people from two different worlds living two different lives get connected by fate, or love…or by a simple strawberry lemonade. Helping people is really cool, and if you set your mind free, baby maybe you’d understand.