Jaran Flaath

It’s a good time to take the opportunity to show those around me that I appreciate them.

I am not talking about my closest relationships, my family, my kids, but rather the more peripheral acquaintances.

I have a barber that I visit very one to two months, and I have come to greatly appreciate these moments of both a pleasant conversation and high quality beard craft. Because of this, I started giving my barber a Christmas gift a couple of years back. Nothing fancy, a bag of chocolates, bottles of locally produced lemonade. Just a token of my appreciation of the things beyond the otherwise clinical transaction of beard trim in exchange for money.

I can’t go around giving Christmas gifts to every store clerk, the mail man and plumber. However, I think picking one or two of these connections that I run into frequently is a great way to put action behind my words when it comes to displaying appreciation for what they do and the quality of it. Most importantly, it brings some warmth and joy into the kind of relationships which has a tendency to be increasingly focused on “I am paying you to do this for me”.

Take the opportunity to consider if you have a florist, a hairdresser, a neighbour that you would like to grant a little extra joy and appreciation. I think we would all benefit from showing a little more appreciation of the things we do for each other.