Having Coffee in the Marriot this week here on business and I am the only person at 6:30 AM in the restaurant working. My server was warm, kind and as she was pouring my coffee, I could tell she wanted to converse but was not going to make that first attempt. I am sure many people do not acknowledge their server except to say hello. I am sure many are focused on work or preparing for whatever conference they have that day. I think this is such a lost opportunity. I myself am not like that, I always make eye contact, smile, and ask for their name and say it’s nice to meet you as I think it is a matter of human respect! It says I see you! She responded in kind, and I asked if she was local and she said yes. I could tell she was an immigrant at some point in her life as her accent was pretty strong. I asked where her homeland was originally and if she did not mind me asking that question. She said she did not mind and shared that she was originally from Ethiopia. She let me know her and her husband gave up pretty much everything to come to America. That included living in a place she loved, friends, family and a way of life. She said it was hard, it was scary and it hurt her heart to become a citizen elsewhere. I simply said do you miss your homeland still. She said absolutely but she also said she couldn’t imagine raising children in a worn torn country that was riddled with corruption. I asked her if it was worth it? She said yes for her family and for her kids, but sadness shown through her eyes, and, in her voice and for that moment it was as if the air in the room was gone. Then without prompting she said I know I won’t ever really be able to ever return. I asked her how she is faring now? Her smile turned worrisome and she said I see so much that is going on in America and it really is starting to look like my homeland, and I worry for my children.“I wonder if one day like me Americans perhaps my children who are American, will be looking elsewhere in the world to flee due to corruption and fear”. I shook my head, and I said I wonder that as well even for myself. Just for that moment a woman who is caucasian,58, CEO, living in a rural part of the state was so in tune with an Ethiopian American citizen, waitress, urban in her mid 60’s sharing in the same fears. This was such a human connection with one another. I carried her with me throughout that day and now into my week and this Blog. I can still see her face and eyes and hear her voice in my head. That 12-minute interaction shaped me, centered me and acknowledged my own emotions and concerns. I experienced myself within that authentic conversation and It was a gift. To be in Communion with another person so easily who was a stranger was what humanity is supposed to look like. In those 12 minutes she could have been family it was so natural. I was able to receive so much by this one interaction I wondered when I left, did she feel the same? Then just like that I was back in my work, my day, my head and my box.
