A Heartwarming Do-Over Story

Every once in a while, an extra human exchange will leave my heart feeling warmed by the compassion, humility and humanity we are capable of sharing with each other. The kind that softens us and breeds connection. The kind we need more of in this world.

On this particular day I was sitting at a corner table at one of my favorite neighborhood cafes, enjoying a beverage and getting some work done. Unfortunately I was being plagued by a months old lingering cough that just wouldn't quit. At this point it had morphed into an asthmatic cough, nothing contagious, but I could not stop.

As I kept coughing I noticed a woman sitting a few seats over shooting me the stink eye, glaring at me on and off in huffs of irritation and judgement.

My initial internal reaction was annoyance. Did she think I was out here trying to keep this cough going?!

But quickly after I noticed my defensive reaction, something in me softened. Because I know that reaction well, and I know underneath the perturbation there is always something deeper being affected.

I realized in this post-pandemic world, she was probably feeling protective about not getting sick. So I walked over to her and offered a little reassurance, simply explaining that I wasn't sick and I just had this nagging asthmatic cough.

She immediately softened and thanked me for coming over. That exchange alone felt really good and I returned to my seat thinking that was that.

Fast forward about 15 minutes later and she came up to me. She wanted to apologize for the looks she'd been giving me earlier. I smiled and we both laughed as I admitted to being guilty of doing the very same thing in other situations!

This moment of shared humanity, forgiveness, imperfection, and laughing at ourselves, felt so good. A moment where we could both admit to not always being our best selves, no one of us the worse or better. A moment when we could remember the power of repair.

This is the world I want to live in. One where we seek ways to be sympathetic and disarming, and seize moments ripe for repair. Where we swap out being right for being human and connected. Where we get chances to try again, because us humans need lots of do-overs.

This post doesn't have any kind of neat segue into my work. I just hope that if you're here reading this, you're like me and could simply use more stories like these to be reminded of the brighter side of being human.