The most tragic part of my day
“Hey welcome in, what can I get you?”
“I’ll do a 16oz Americano”
“Sounds good man, can I get you anything else?”
“Yeah, can I actually do a $100 gift card? $75 for the people’s orders after me and $25 for you guys?”
I’m caught out of my habitual coffee shop back and forth between customers. This is new.
“Wow man, that’s really generous. Any reason why?”
“It’s a hard day, I figured I’d try and spread some joy while I could.”
“Why is it a hard day?”
“I’m going to a funeral”
“Oh man I’m sorry, who’s it for?”
“My wife.”
Tragedy took me by surprise today. I feel sad and grateful to have met this man today. I feel impacted by his choice to both tell me of his recently passed wife, his honesty of grief, his transparency in choosing to walk towards generosity in grief.
I was shaken out of the normalcy of my day. I thought of my wife. I thought of what I woke up thinking about as “problems”. I think about this man and his pain and I ache for him. And I’m thankful for a road he’s walking in a way that I wouldn’t have considered an option.