I am extraordinary!
Let me tell you how I know:
Yesterday I used an elevator and upon entry saw a bright pink post-it-note stuck to the back wall. It was small but its colour drew attention. I typically back into elevators but decided to go straight in because I was curious to read what was on the note. I pushed forward, made sure the door could close behind me, that my wheelchair bag wasn’t blocking it, and then leaned forward to read the message.
“You are extraordinary!”
There was something so bold about the colour of the paper and the way the note had been printed, by a very sure hand, and the exuberance of the exclamation mark, that made me smile. Weirdly, for someone made uncomfortable by compliments, the message slipped by all my defenses and landed solidly right smack in the middle of my heart. It was an unexpected affirmation from someone unknown to me, left for the sole purpose of making someone’s world a little brighter. And, for me, it worked.
The strangest thing though was that when I used the elevator again, hours later, it was still there, in exactly the same spot. No one had ripped it down, no one had written another message over it, no one … it was put up by someone who wanted the world made brighter and left there by everyone else who either needed it or recognized that it was needed.
I don’t know who wrote it and stuck it up.
But, I think I like them.
Small things matter, we know that, but actually getting the idea and carrying out the idea are different things, aren’t they.
Doing Damns the Darkness.
And someone did that for me.
