Kindness in the Workplace

One day, while I was walking to work, I decided to bring some flowers that I had picked from my garden that morning. I came across a random stranger, and was inspired to give the bunch to him with a smile card. Struck by the sense of joy I felt from giving flowers to another person, and maybe brightening his day, I wanted to do it again. When I got to my office, I had the idea of anonymously leaving flowers around the workplace. Sometimes, the impersonal atmosphere of the building where I work numbs my spirits a little. It's a nice building, with great light, but it just feels a little sterile sometimes. I figured lots of people might feel the same way, so why not put a little beauty there, and throw in an inspirational quote while I'm at it? After all, who doesn't like flowers? So, for the past month, I've been putting flowers in a little cup on the sink in the bathroom. Each week, I change the flowers and the quote. It always feels refreshing for me to read quotes like Henry David Thoreau's "If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours" and Gandhi's "The fragrance always remains on the hand that gives the rose." If anything, I figured, it at least makes me smile each time I visit the bathroom. Then today, when I walked in, I noticed new flowers in the cup, and a quote that someone else had written!! It said, "Be the change you wish to see in the world" -Gandhi. For me, seeing this little act was a reminder that, at the end of the day, we're all just people with hearts. Regardless of the various roles and different hats we may wear in the workplace. I did a little dance and am smiling wide for the rest of the day! :)