Listening

Direct sales has raised my level of attentiveness to the lives of others. I have been engaging in more conversations with those people who are usually invisible: clerks, cashiers, fellow parents wrangling their children at rummage sales. Meeting people, even in brief conversation, is a very pleasant experience even when it isn't. The bad experiences give me much to pray about and the feeling that I may have brightened their day a little through some social contact. The good experiences remind me that we are all stuck together on this crazy, spinning mudball called Earth so we might as well enjoy each other.

To paraphrase G.K. Chesterton, people are more real than you can imagine.