Positively Newsworthy – The Little Things, Brought to you by By Niall Mac Giolla Rua.
From our Winter 2015/2016 issue.
Beautiful events and moments are happening all around us. Look around, smile, see kindness everywhere you go. If it’s not there, you have been gifted the wonderful opportunity to be the person to introduce it to that space and time, create it, watch the ripples…
One day I dropped into Bewley’s on Grafton St. for a quick coffee. I sat next to a table where a woman was just leaving. All I remember about her is that she didn’t eat her amaretto. Bewley’s always sat a delicious little amaretto biscuit next to your coffee on the saucer, and I was a greedy monster for these things. I adored them; how anyone could just leave one there and not eat it was incomprehensible to me but it didn’t matter; that amaretto was going straight into my mouth the moment she was out of sight.
I wasn’t fast enough.
Before the woman got to a respectable distance a waitress came and cleared the table. I couldn’t help it—I let out a clearly audible “Aaw!” When the waitress turned to enquire there was no way out; I had to explain myself. “It’s just…I was going to eat that amaretto. What? I can’t help it. I love them so much!” I was working perhaps a bit too carefully on appearing non-embarrassed.
She laughed and took my order. A few minutes later she came back looking very happy with herself. She proudly presented me with an Americano coffee on a saucer packed full of Amaretti. Her smile had that endearing “Look what I made” quality and I couldn’t thank her enough. There are very few times in my life when I’ve felt so truly loved.
She took the opportunity to be beautiful that day and to show who she really was behind the anonymous waitress role. Opportunities like that don’t always come along, but obviously beauty must have already been strong in her to seize this opportunity with such expressive flair. Looking back I realise I was aware of her inner beauty before we spoke, which is why I was so relaxed and honest with her. There’s always a beauty there waiting to express itself. I’ve been learning that when I’m aware of this beauty, when I’m tuned in and listening to it, the world finds more and more extraordinarily beautiful ways of presenting it to me. Now, looking back, that girl was being perfectly normal, I just hadn’t quite learned to see at the time. She was one of my teachers.
