I hope your week is off to a good start! I am re-using an anecdote from last summer with a short update. It's based on the principle we have been committing to live out as a Board. It's the principle of noticing.
Have you ever had a similar experience? Coming into work one morning when my office was in the Oliver Building, I thought I was being gracious holding the elevator for a woman who was running to catch it. As she hurriedly got on I asked her what floor she wanted me to push for her. When she replied "12" which was the same floor as me, I asked her who she had an appointment with that morning. She looked at me quizzically and responded, “I work here, Mr. Buda.” As the elevator door opened I quickly spit out, ‘I’m sorry, I didn’t recognize you.”
I wasn’t lying. But I would have been more accurate if I had said, “I’ve never noticed you.” Each Monday I email you encouraging us to love our neighbors at work. To care for them. To be there for them. To pray for them. Perhaps, to even invite them to be part of our PX group.
None of that happens, unless we first NOTICE them. A precursor of knowing someone, is noticing them. That means intentionally walking through your office and this world with your eyes up, with them open to your neighbor. On purpose. Intentionally.
If we love our neighbors, before doing anything else we must see our neighbors. With our imagination as well as our eyes, that is to say, like artists, we must see, not just their faces but the life behind and within their faces. Here it is love that is the frame we see them in. Frederick Buechner
Since I shared this anecdote last summer, a friend mentioned he has tried to notice people around him more intentionally. He made sure to greet and get to know the two attendants in the garage in which he parks during the week. A couple of weeks ago as he pulled up he noticed the garage sign said "Full." As he started to roll by to look for another place to park, he noticed one of the attendants waving him down. When he rolled down his window the attendant told him to pull in and leave him the keys and he would take care of him. When my friend said, "I thought you were full," he was told,"There is always room for a friend."
My buddy did not "notice" this man with expectations of any favors. He did it because it was the right thing to do. And after 6 months of "noticing," he had made a friend. Imagine the impact we could have by intentionally noticing people with whom we work 40 or more hours a week.
Sit up. Take notice. Be available. Make a positive impact on the world around you.