You Are Beautiful

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I'm not sure how to start this story...

whether to ask you if you believe in angels here on earth...

or ask if you believe in paying it forward 

or if you think karma and energy influences us~what comes around goes around.

Or just jump right into describing this really strange yet

inspiring encounter that happened to me the other day.

I guess I will just tell you what happened

and leave it to you to decide what you think about it.

The other day I was in a particularly stressed mood...

feeling very angry at the world and down in the dumps;

if truth be told.

I had a lot on my mind and even more things

to accomplish on my mile long agenda list.

Some of the items on my to-do list did not particularly 

thrill me and so I was in a state of dread.

You know how you get when you know there are things 

that must be completed and you just don't want to do them?

Grumpy, irritable, and not feeling very beautiful inside or out.

I pulled into the parking lot of the office, 

noticing as I did,

a maintenance truck sitting in front of the door.

There were two men near the truck,

both scruffy looking and quite rough around the edges.

I sat for a moment, 

not really wanting to walk past them and engage in any form of 

human interaction due to my grumpiness,

and watched one of the men go into the same office 

in which I needed to go.

Reluctantly I got out of my truck

and made my way past the maintenance truck,

behind which the second man had disappeared,

and into the office where I needed to pick up the keys

to the new building where I will be working.

After quickly retrieving the keys from the secretary,

I headed back outside, thankful to have avoided 

the maintenance man that had just gone in and

thankful that the secretary didn't seem to be the chatty kind.

As I walked past the maintenance truck yet again, 

I heard a man's voice from behind the truck say

something that was inaudible to me.

It was clear to me,

since I was the only person in the parking lot besides him,

that he was speaking to me, 

but I didn't understand what he had said.

As I approached the back of the truck,

there stood the second maintenance man,

who, upon seeing me walk around the truck,

seemed embarrassed to have said something.

He clearly didn't mean whatever he said to

be heard by me and when he saw me he 

said, "Oh, I thought you were Stan...Sorry about that."

I smiled, thankful that he wasn't going to start a conversation,

and answered back that it was ok...

I disappeared into the new office space the company I work for is renting

and checked to make sure they had cleaned the space 

as well as what they had promised (which they did, it turns out),

and then headed right back out again into the parking lot.

When I stepped out I found the second maintenance man

leaning against his truck.

Casting my eyes to the ground, 

I gritted my jaw and walked briskly toward my own truck,

again, not wanting to engage in any conversation.

But dang nabbit, just as I passed him,

the man said,

"Excuse me."

I replied with a short, curt,

"Yes?"

And this is where it gets weird.

He, this scraggly, dirty, unkempt maintenance man,

looked me straight in the eye and said

with the warmest and most sincere voice,

"Just in case no one else tells you today...

You are beautiful."

I stopped dead in my tracks.

I know it sounds like he was trying to hit on me

or be creepy...

but I am here to tell you that it was not like that at all.

It felt like he was not even talking about my appearance at all, actually.

It felt like his eyes could see my soul

and he was telling me that my insides were beautiful...

my heart and my spirit.

That one sentence changed my whole day.

I smiled warmly back at him and I told him thank you.

I told him that I needed to hear that today and I really appreciated him.

He smiled back and told me I was welcome.

I walked to my truck, 

got in, and felt so warm inside.

Yes, I was beautiful, wasn't I?

Even with my grumpiness and attitude,

I was still beautiful inside.

And for the rest of the day

I tried to pay it forward

and greet each person I saw with a warm

heart felt smile

and a genuine hello.

And my day that had started so poorly 

turned around just like that...

With one sentence from a stranger.

So, my friends, I am saying this to you...

Just in case no one else tells you today...YOU are beautiful.