THE SALT OF THE EARTH

By the title of this little tirade, you might think this will be about what God calls us to be. I’m sorry; it is not. It is about customer service – or lack of it. Every single time I drive through McDonald’s, I have to ask for salt. The person in the window selects 2 packets of salt and hands it to me ever so gently. Just once, I want to ask “Do you have to pay for the salt out of your own pocket”? So today as I was putting salt on my fries, I started to think of all the people in customer service oriented jobs that just should not be there. I worked in retail for a number of years. Not once did I just point the way. I stopped what I was doing to help the customer actually FIND what they were looking for. When I had to run a cash register, I THANKED people for the money they handed me. No, it wasn’t going in my pocket directly, but the fact that they spent money where I worked meant I was going to have a job. People work hard for their money. Is there anything wrong with smiling and thanking them?

Next on my list today is the person who answers a question with the words, “That’s not my job (or department)”. Well for goodness sakes, please then don’t go out of your way to help me. I would hate to be the reason your were late for your break. The break that you feel entitled to. Please. Spare me. I wonder if these people ever stop to think that they are the ones we remember when we leave the store. We won’t remember the paper on the floor, the spot on the door, the shopping cart with the broken wheel. We will remember the words employees speak to us and their actions and attitudes. What has happened to customer service? It makes me wonder about their parents. Really, it does. My first job (at 13) was handing out samples of cheese in the deli my Mom managed. See, Mom has been in retail too. I would have never embarrassed my Mother by letting someone pass me by without at least smiling. I would have never embarrassed my Mother by saying “that’s not my job” or by taking my time to answer. And look out if I ever even thought of shuffling my feet! That shows laziness and a lack of respect. My second job (at 15) was in a deli in a small family owned grocery store. I got up at 4:30 each morning (it was the 80’s and I had “big hair”) to get ready for work. I cooked and served breakfast until time for school. I smiled and told people good morning. Shoot! I even told them to have a nice day!

Customer Service. I gave it 100% for many years in retail. Plain and simple courtesy. I give it every day in my job now.

I am paying attention. I will report you. On the flip side, if I receive excellent customer service, I report that too. Well done.

Smile and tell me thank you when you accept my money. Stop talking on your cell phone long enough to help me find the obscure item I need for a class project. Don’t chew gum in my face. Don’t talk to other employees while conducting business with me. If you don’t know, just tell me that and find someone who does.

As my Mother always told me, if you do not want the job, there are several people without one just waiting to take it ….

Thank you and have a nice day.

WHEN SAYING “THANK YOU” IS NOT ENOUGH

Sometimes saying “thank you” just doesn’t seem like enough. I have been blessed in so many different ways over the past two months that I feel like a simple “thanks” is not adequate. What am I saying? An elaborate “thank you” doesn’t seem to be enough either. How do you convey to someone that what they have done for you was unexpected, gracious and more than generous?

I have been thinking about the blessings in my life a lot over the past few months. Don’t get me wrong, I count my blessings every day. But over the past couple of months I have been overwhelmed by many things. I thank God for them (talk about a simple “thank you” sounding quite weak) and I thank others verbally or by sending cards but these kinds of blessings deserve shouts and jumps for joy.

The more I think about the “perfect thank you”, the more I think that the only way to show gratitude is to be a blessing to someone else. Maybe a blessing isn’t meant to be re-paid, but meant to be passed on. Kind of like the love of God. You cannot repay God for the love and the sacrifice (not to mention the grace). You can only pass along the love of God to someone else.

To those of you who have so generously blessed me over the past couple of months and throughout my life (you know who you are), I say a very heartfelt “Thank you” and I want to let you know I will do my best to be a blessing to someone else.

ABOUT THE DINING TABLE

Well, we have successfully completed two meals at the “dining table”. Sunday afternoon’s meal was spaghetti and Chelsea was so excited! She helped set the table and everything. She took extra care to “wrap” the silverware in napkins. She wanted a part of everything that went into the meal. We talked about church that morning and we talked about the Sunday School lesson. When the meal was over, she helped clear the table.

Monday night’s dinner was a little longer with a little more conversation. Chelsea asked how my day was. Precious child. She learned that even though she was finished eating, she should sit at the table until everyone is finished. She kept finding different ways and different things to “drum”. She calls it rhythm. I call it nerve wrecking. She stayed until the meal was over and helped clear the table. She is much more interested in setting than she is in clearing. She is very concerned about where the silverware should be placed and unfortunately I am going to have to look that up!

As I sit here this afternoon, I find myself planning our evening meal and looking forward to the dinner conversation. These times will be gone before I know it and I plan to enjoy them and build grand memories for the three of us.

TREE DOWN … SPIRITS UP!

Well, the tree is down. The ornaments are nestled for a long spring/summer/fall nap and it’s time to think about …. KING CAKE!

It occurred to me this morning as I looked around the empty space where the tree was that we would have to move the table back in place and maybe we could use it to eat together as a family. Chelsea’s soccer games will start again soon and that will mean practice twice a week. That will more than likely knock out the whole “family table” dream, but we will see.

On to the King Cake. I was reading the newspaper this morning and one of the bakeries in town was featured in an article about King Cake. It is not my bakery of choice, so it will remain unnamed. Anyway, my immediate thought was of all of those poor people who started their New Year’s diets with King Cake season upon us. I mean whoever heard of a carb friendly king cake? And if there is such a thing, why on earth would you want to eat it? So for now, I will eat my King Cake and look forward to my Valentine’s Day chocolate. I might consider that diet thing in between Easter and my birthday!

And just in case you are looking for the perfect place to buy a King Cake … it’s Cake Palace !

TO TREE OR NOT TO TREE

I just love Christmas! Well, parts of it anyway. I love seeing people open the gifts I purchased for them. I love the anticipation and the excitement. I even like shopping during those last few hours the stores are open on Christmas Eve. What’s not to love about the whole “Christmas thing”? My answer is…. The TREE! I love ornaments, I think the lights are great, the tree looks terrific when it’s finally up. When everything is in place, I stand back and think, “WOW, what a beautiful tree!” I don’t think about the time it has just taken me to carefully unwrap each ornament and put a hook on it before passing it to Chelsea so it can have a home on the tree. Once the task is finished, I forget what a pain it is for Scotty to haul all of my “Christmas Totes” in from the garage. Once the tree is decorated and we turn off all of the lights and stand together to look at it, I forget what a pain it is to separate all 750 pieces of it by color codes and wiggle the “branches” into place. Yes, I am happy with our tree.

Christmas Day comes and goes, and now it is December 26th. I become all consumed with the thought of taking the tree down. When can I take the tree down? If I call in sick, I could get all of the decorations put away in just one day. If I do one thing each night, will it only take me three days? If I spend a night and focus only on disassembling the tree, what will we have for dinner? I dread the thought of dragging the above mentioned “totes” back in the house. I dread the task of removing the hooks from the precious ornaments. I wonder how in the world all of that stuff PLUS the new stuff is going to be repacked into the all important “totes”.

It’s a circle I repeat every year … to tree or not to tree…

The Beginning of Something New

This could be the beginning of something new! Or, it could be one of those things that falls by the wayside with all of the other New Year’s Resolutions.

I plan to use this space to keep you updated on the Lee family and the extended family.

I wish you a very Happy 2005!