Make someone happy today

I stepped into the elevator with a sense of dread. This wasn’t the place I wanted to be, even though not far from my location were some of the most beautiful beaches on the Florida coast, not to mention other attractions like the unique shops along Atlantic Avenue, boat tours, and the Japanese Gardens.

None of those things were of even passing interest to me, for my wife and I didn’t think of ourselves as being on vacation. We were there to help our son, Harrison, who is in the process of working on sobriety at a rehabilitation center in the area.

“How ya doing?” I managed to greet the hotel maintenance workers already on board the elevator.

“Doin’ great,” one of them, a short, stout, Hispanic man, responded with a cheery voice and halted English. “What floor?” he asked, offering to push the floor number button on the elevator.

Maybe it was the lift in his voice that made me look at him again.  I guessed that his weatherworn face added years to his actual age.  There was a flicker in his tired eyes, which carried bags beneath them. I wondered, does he work two jobs? Had life been hard on him?  What burdens does he carry? His trimmed mustache and clean-shaven face told me he took pride in his appearance. It would be easy in his work to let it go, but his maintenance clothes were crisp and neatly ironed and his shirttail tightly tucked in. Did his wife stay up late last night and press his clothes for him? Or does he live alone? How long has he lived in the United States? What would this day hold for him? What’s his story?

I felt a bit ashamed for my inner turmoil, my aggravation, even borderline resentment for needing to make this trip.

“You gonna make someone happy today,” he confidently announced, glancing at me sideways with a smile as he and his co-worker exited the elevator.

His words jolted me. Suddenly the maintenance worker had turned into a prophet. Had he somehow sensed my apprehensions as I stepped into the elevator? Did he know I was being tempted to succumb to the mind’s negative side, dangerously drifting near the waters of that dreadful swampland of stinkin’ thinkin’?

I stepped out of the elevator and turned down the hallway to our room, but I also made a U-turn in my attitude. Instead of dreading this day, I was now determined to make somebody happy, as the maintenance man told me I would.

I started, as any man in his right mind would, with my wife: “Breakfast from the buffet? Let me bring that to you while you get ready,” I offered.

“I hope you have a splendid day,” I declared to the hotel desk clerk on my way to the restaurant.

And the case workers and counselors we met later in the day would be my friends, upon whom I would smile, speak words of affirmation, and do my best to encourage.

And as for our son, well, life is too short to hang disappointments around someone’s neck like an ugly necklace that carries a bad memory. Instead, I decided we would celebrate his progress in sobriety with a seafood dinner and then frolic on the beach like kids who get to experience the thrill of catching a wave for the first time.

As author and pioneer in integrative medicine, Rachel Naomi Remen, M.D., has observed, “Few people know that they have the power to bless life. We bless the life in each other far more than we realize. Many simple, ordinary things that we do can affect those around us in profound ways.”

So, thank you, Mr. Hotel Maintenance Worker, I take my hat off and bow to you, and pledge to do my best to fulfill your prediction, passing along your blessing to whomever I can, wherever I can, whenever I can, doing the little things I can to make others’ lives a little happier each day.