March 19, 2020
Thursday thoughts about love and hope…
Andy Dufresne in Shawshank Redemption said “Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.”
It’s hard to be vulnerable, to put yourself out there for all to see. I am a private person and usually keep my thoughts to myself unless asked. So these posts of mine leave me out there, and as a small business owner I have always felt a need to be neutral, to be in middle. I don’t want to alienate guests and have them not return. Yes guests, we don’t have customers here we have always had guests. You’re in my house. You are in Tim’s house. You are in Kat’s house, welcome, make yourself comfortable please. Anyway, thanks for allowing me to stick my neck out, I’ll keep writing.
Three stories today about you, our loving guests. Our family. I love the team here at Max & Emily’s. They make us successful, they make the difference in people’s lives, they are proud and kind humans. And for three days now I have been trying to figure out how deep in the hole I can go to ensure they keep getting a paycheck if we are closed and they cannot work anymore. My second guest yesterday came in and handed me an envelope for them, enough so that there is 100 dollars for everyone who works here. I cried then, I’m crying now as I type this. This gentleman and his wife are longtime friends of ours, of the community, of life. Kindness in the face of what feels like insurmountable fear gives me hope that love will always win.
We are putting out staffing schedules right now the day before, because we don’t know what’s going to happen. Can we be open for 3 hours? Do we need to have 2 staff on? Can we run a full shift? Yesterday after we closed up I was letting everyone know here that yesterday might be their last shift for a few days because we need to get some other team members a couple of shifts. One team member stopped down in my office before they left and said if a colleague needs the hours more to give it to them. Sacrifice for others in the face of what feels like insurmountable fear continues to give me hope that love will always win.
My first order today came in at 7:05am, and was an online order. Here is what is says in the notes “Please distribute to your staff and/or hand these sandwiches out to someone in need. Living in Lansing I can’t eat them myself, so I hope someone else enjoys them! Hang in there Max & Emily’s Crew.” The team here always eats for free when they work, so these will be donated to guests at random today. The kindness of strangers to strangers proves that love will always win.
Stay strong out there friends. One step, one heartbeat, one moment at a time. I’m not allowed to hug you, but if I could, I’d hug everyone of you. thanks for all that you do for us and for each other.
Today’s quote comes from Ariana Grande:
‘Cause I never knew, I never knew
You could hold moonlight in your hands
’Til the night I held you
You are my moonlight.