Pay It Forward...

Or, How Sunny is Like A Solar Powered Daisy-Toy.

About a year ago, work was going through some pretty serious upheaval.

We were getting ready to move to a new office.

(Yeah. That was a year ago. I know... time flies.)

We were feeling pretty bedraggled as an office unit - We had lost just short of half of our workforce to layoffs and voluntary resignments due to salary freezes.

We were tired, we were beat down, and we wanted to hole up and eat cookies for the winter like fat little bears.

Which is why it became so important for me, at the Reception desk, to keep a smile planted firmly on my face.

I was more than a phone answerer (although my cohorts would never admit it). I was a custodian... a sticker-giver-outer... a therapist... and a positivity coach.

I was feeling pretty well used up.

At the same time this was happening, businesses were flocking through our doors with offers for services they could offer at the new building.

And sometimes they gave us presents.

(We called them presents, because then you can accept them. You can't keep them if they're bribes. It's in the handbook.)

One of these presents was a little solar powered plastic daisy toy.

The idea is simple - the little daisy in the little pot is run on perpetual motion generated by the sun.

(Okay... maybe it's not simple, and I just strung together words that I thought sounded intelligent enough to make it seem as though I knew what I was talking about.)

Anyway, when it's sunny outside and the little daisy can see the light, it dances.

And when it's dark, it peters out. It tries to keep wiggling for a little while, but eventually it runs out of energy and just can't keep going.

Recently, I dug my little plastic daisy toy out of the last box I had left to unpack from a drawer I had forgotten I stashed stuff in when we moved. As it was sitting in the drawer, it was wonky and pathetic. It listed sadly to the left and didn't move at all.

But as soon as I retrieved it and set it on my shelf...

It started to twitch.

And then it got a little wiggle.

And while it's got a hitch in its getalong now, it's still trying to dance for me.

It's a pretty inspirational little piece of machinery. So eager to please, if you only give it just a little attention and don't leave it forgotten in the bottom of a drawer next to a cup of fourteen-month-old Halloween candy.**1

And it made me think.

I don't take a whole lot of encouragement to be positive.

Just enough to make me feel as though my efforts aren't totally wasted.

So I got a little pep in my mosey today when one of the higher-ups here in the office sent me a note about how my positive attitude had helped her through a moment of accidental grouchiness.

And I bet I'm not the only one who feels this way. (How's that for self importance... My head's growing loftier by the minute.)

So let me share this moment with you, ReaderFriends:

When I'm feeling low...
Lower than the floor...
And I think that I don't have a chance...

(No. Not going there. There's no coming back from Vin Diesel doing the Panda Dance, and we cannot risk losing this pep-sharing moment.)

When I'm having a particularly dreary day, it always lifts my spirits to see that readers from around the world are enjoying the words I'm putting out there.

Even when I think it's just Boyfriend of Amazingness and my Mom who are doing the reading... I know it's not. Because neither of them are in Germany. Or in Brazil. Or anywhere else in the whole wide world that readers have pinged Dear EngineerFriend from.

Even when I don't have the time, the energy or the creative razzle-dazzle to pull together something new for you... You're still here. Checking in, seeing what there is to see and leaving your mark on my page.

And that brightens my day.

Thank you for being here, ReaderFriend. It's wonderful to have you around.

**1 Yes. I ate it. Don't judge.