Saturday, January 29, 2011

one cup at a time


it started as an idea birthed from a passion to speak life.

and now, weeks later, 'just a CUP-el of words' [formally knows as operation 'cup o' encouragement'] is in full swing.

if you asked me a week ago if i thought it would have the effect that it does, i would have laughed. don't get me wrong, i believe that words have power and that people are starving for encouragement these days, but in no way did i ever expect .... this:

day one: a man looks at his cup which read, "this too shall pass" and tells me i just made his day.

day two: two ladies come in and say loud enough for me to hear, "are these the two ladies who write on the cups?" [referring to my coworker and i] and looks at me and says, "keep it up".

day three: a regular comes in, grabs her cup and looks at it. thinking nothing of it, i say, "what are you looking for?". her response? "encouragement".

day four: a local high school student goes out of her way to thank me for 'the message on her cup'. with the biggest smile on her face, she holds her cup high enough for me to see. believe in yourself, it said. and with that, she went back to school with a little more confidence than what she came in with.

the next day a teacher comes in and tells me this whole cup thing is the talk of her classroom and assures me that it is making a difference.

a day later, a grown man leaves my coffee shop in tears because he got a cup that read "hang in there" on a day where he felt like doing anything but.

shortly after that, two high school students came in and asked me if i have a book of inspirations that i get these quotes from before mentioning in passing how much the girls in their class appreciate the encouragement.

a lady then walks in and tells me how she saw a random guy walking down the street and noticed that he had encouragement on his cup. "i knew he had to have been to this second cup", she said.

later that day, i overhear a group of regulars talking about the words on their cup. as they were getting ready to go back to work, one of them says, "i could not get the words 'you are not alone' out of my head ALL day yesterday"

...and the list goes on.

please hear me. i don't write all of this to show off. trust me when i say this - i'm no big deal! [i promise that there will be future blogs written to prove this; blogs written about my inability to love people at times, my struggles, fears, doubts, frustrations etc]. my purpose in writing this blog is to encourage you, the reader, to find your passion, to act on it, and to sit back and watch how even the smallest gesture, like writing on cups, can impact the lives - and the world - around you.

"the majority of us lead quiet, unheard of lives, as we pass through this world. there will most likely be no ticker-tape parades for us, no monuments created in our honor. but that does not lesson our possible impact, for there are scorns of people waiting for someone just like us to come along; people who will appreciate our compassion,our talents. Someone who will live a happier life merely because we took the time to share what we had to give. too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have a potential to turn a life around. it's overwhelming to consider the continuous opportunities there are to make our love felt” [leo b]

now go spread the love!

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