“Well, Mr. Hand,” said the young man in Fast Times. “If I’m here and you’re here, doesn’t that make it our time?”

Each morning shift, as the store hums and beeps in anticipation of the coming rush of hungry, aspirational, and irritated customers. The flow of life moves on. The morning is chill, you clean stuff, set the shelves to be perfect, and you get ice from the big machine in the back, the cave of ice.

Our time in these early hours are mostly for staff. The random early bird customer always exclaims, “I’m going to remember to shop in the morning.”

Our time in the rush hour of lunch and on-the-way-home-from-work, the bustle gets into full swing. You can see the anxious ones, the confident ones, and the enlightened ones. In this usage, I mean the people who are content with their lives. Just being present. Taking the experience one day at a time, or even one breath at a time. We resonate when other “seekers” have come into my lane. An easy greeting, a bit of cheerful banter, and I can judge if it’s going to be a chatty encounter or a distracted one. I’m okay either way.

I am learning to be quiet even in my role as lion tamer, bag wrastler, and cashier. Sometimes, less interaction is the plan.

If this is “our time,” I need to be receptive to your state of mind as well as my own. In service, I take my lead from you.

Namasté.

[Listen to the Deep Dive explore the concepts of The Happy Cashier.]

The hope I see in others
becomes the hope I have for myself,
my life, and my own journey.
– The Happy Cashier

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