“Kind words are short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.”
~Mother Teresa

At some point of last week I walked into our neighborhood coffee shop for a cup of coffee to go. In the busy-ness leading up to Holy Week and Easter, I had not had any of my leisurely, more contemplative sit-and-stare times in this establishment. I was again on the run but was happy to find myself in this spot that has come to be a homing place for many in our community. Like many coffee shops, there is always a trivia question printed in colored chalk on a blackboard hanging just above the ordering station.

That day’s question went something like: ‘These words: ” We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal” introduces what U.S. document? As Paul, the barista was making my usual cup of half-caf with room for cream, I answered the question. Without missing a beat, he answered with the words ‘Good job!’ at my correct answer. He reached under the counter to hand me my prize, a chocolate mint patty, which I turned down. “Oh, just having the correct answer is prize enough for you, huh?”, he said with a smile filling his face.

He was only partially right. Now, I know that Paul is a father of young children, two sweet little people I have observed when they have been in the shop. I am sure he says ‘good job’ to them countless times a day. I can sense this is his nature. Good job….when they finish their milk. Good job….when they pick up their toys. Good job…when they share with their sibling. Good job….when they remember to say thank you to an adult or even better to another child. Good job….when they bounce a ball and catch it.Good job….when they fulfill any of the number of acts we assign to ‘growing up’. For these two children, good job is something they hear over and over in a day as a sign that they are being watched and loved unconditionally, that they are known and doing things that make their parents proud.

But as adults we don’t hear ‘good job’ so much. It is taken for granted that we will do our work, that we will pick up after ourselves, that we will share and say thank you, that we will continue to do the acts of being grown up without the need for anyone to offer us affirmation. All I know is that morning after answering a question known my most fifth graders, I left that coffee shop feeling better than when I walked in. I made a note of how good it felt to have my answer and in turn my life affirmed by another. For him it was second nature but those two words altered my day. I wanted to go around paying attention. Paying attention to the many ways I might find to offer the same words to another.

When was the last time you said ‘good job’ to someone? When was the last time you said it to a stranger? A child? Your partner? Your friend? We know that each day has highs and lows for which we can plan and prepare and still others that sneak up on us and catch us off guard. Many can wound us and send us into the rest of the hours of the day with invisible hurts that are open and throbbing. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to see ourselves as the healers we are? Healers who are ready to be present, to listen, to notice, to affirm.

It really can be as simple as two little words: Good job!