I had the most enlightening experience on Thursday during my lunch hour. This experience occurred in the most unlikely of places, too. Taco Bell.

I'm sure many of you are saying to yourself, "What could possibly be enlightening at a Taco Bell?" I assure you, I'd be asking the same thing, so let me explain.

I went through the drive thru to get a quick bite to take back to work with me so I could continue shoveling through the mountain of work I had sitting on my desk. I was feeling stressed and impatient and just wanted to get my food and go. Of course, there was a long line and I had to repeat my order a couple of times to the woman on the speaker and when I got to the 1st window to pay for my meal, I was feeling pretty mean.

Begin enlightening experience here...

The 1st window opens and inside is a brightly smiling young man who greets me warmly and proceeds to teach me a life lesson in 30 seconds.

He tells me that his name is Sam and asks me how my day is going. He quickly and efficiently takes my money, gives me all the required sauces and straws and napkins, wishes me a happy day and tells me to come back and visit again as he sends me on to the next window to get my food.

Now, don't get me wrong. I've heard all of the "How are you", "Thank you for stopping, please come again", "Have a nice days" speeches from people just like everyone else.

They're rarely sincere and barely memorable.

But with this young man, there was something different. There was a spark there. He actually MEANT what he was saying and was enjoying interacting with me and, I'm sure, everyone else who came to his window.

So what, right? So the Taco Bell guy was nice to me. What was so enlightening about that, huh?

It was enlightening because in that moment, he showed me a living, breathing example of a concept that I've read and heard about over and over again.

You can't control what happens to you, but you CAN control how it affects you.

Here's a young man working at Taco Bell, which is probably less than his dream job, and he's HAPPY and he's making other people happy just by coming into contact with him.

I don't know about you, but I want to be Sam.

In the 3 years since my fiance died, I know that I've been retreating into myself more and more. I've become cynical, emotionally detached, and just plain unavailable. I don't want that to be my legacy. I don't want people to say, "She was never the same after he died." I want people to remember that I lived and loved to the very fullest. I want people to remember their last moment with me and smile. I don't want them to have to think back to years ago back when "she used to be happy."

And so, it begins here.

Below is piece of artwork by artstyledesign called "Spread the Love." It embodies in a single picture the entire message that I'd like to help Sam communicate. Please stop by and leave her a comment on this wonderful piece. [link]



Let's Spread the Love.

PJ

**journal skin created by ginkografix. Spread some love to her as well, please! [link] **