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Cloud Gazing
A window filled with clouds is a lot sunnier than you'd think.
“We're never so vulnerable than when we trust someone—but if we cannot trust, neither can we find love or joy.” ~ Walter Anderson
“My see” were the words my two-year-old daughter Maggie used last week as she extended her arms toward an older woman sitting in the window seat on a Spring Break flight to Mexico.
The adult translation of those words is: “Excuse me, ma’am. Your window seat is better than my middle seat. I would really love to climb over this armrest, jump on your lap and hang out with you for a few minutes so I can look out that window. You good with that?”
Now this woman was obviously well-versed in the ancient language of baby babble and knew exactly what Maggie was saying. She pulled up the armrest, held out her arms and without hesitation, Maggie plopped on her lap. They then began cloud gazing while getting to know each other.
My first reaction as a parent was one of hesitation. After all, I was a product of the “Don’t talk to strangers” era. Not only was Maggie talking (I think), she was bouncing on the knee of a complete stranger. My second reaction was as an adult who just knew there was no way that woman could want my drooling two-year-old climbing all over her. After several minutes of visiting, Maggie waved bye-bye to the woman and happily scampered back to her Barney video.
The airplane episode was only the beginning. Throughout the week, Maggie sat in several more laps, high-fived countless strangers and waved kisses to a dozen or more people she had gotten to know. As I watched her in action, I began thinking…at what point and at what age will Maggie become weary of new faces, put her guard up and perhaps stop trusting people she doesn’t know? At what point will strangers stop randomly smiling at, waving at and openly trusting her?
Then I thought, “What a shame. Why does it all have to end?” Well, maybe it doesn’t. While I don’t expect strangers to randomly pinch our cheeks and blow us kisses walking down the street, maybe there is something we can do that will make people want to open up to us more. And if they open up to us more, we can then learn more, influence more and serve more. So how do we do it? By doing what babies do…by trusting OTHERS as we did when we didn’t know any better! By giving others access to us, we will be given access to them.
So this week, let’s think of one person who we are reluctant to trust and TRUST them. Let us make the first move. Might we get burned? Yep! But I believe that when we open our doors, more good than bad will enter. And surrounded by more joy than ever, we can be taken back to a time when, like Maggie, people felt compelled to smile at us, laugh with us and let us know that their day is better because we helped them “look out the window and into the clouds” for just a bit.
Brian is author of the popular sales and communications book, 20 Days to the Top. To learn more, or to share your own business and life lessons on his message board, go to www.preciseselling.com.
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