“Gratitude will get you Everywhere”
The author wishes to remain anonymous

I live in a high rise apartment building in a large city. One of the gentlemen who lives in my building is an angry person. He walks with his head down and never speaks to anyone. He grunts under his breath loud enough to be heard. People are afraid to talk to him.

One day, I saw him with his leg in a cast. I asked him what happened. He only grunted an answer. For me, it was an opportunity to change his life a bit.

I purchased a bouquet of flowers and having sworn the doorman to secrecy, had him deliver the bouquet to our unhappy tenant’s apartment. I signed the bouquet’s card, “We wish you a speedy recovery” and signed it “All your neighbors at (our address).”

My formerly grumpy neighbor now smiles at everyone he meets, since he doesn’t know which of these people thought him special enough to send the bouquet. As unhappy as he was, he was still grateful for the get well gesture.

It is fun for me to see him talking to all his neighbors, welcoming people into the building and being totally social with everyone.

Not one of my neighbors understands what made the change, but I know and so does G-d. Now the readers of this e-mail know and I hope each of you helps to make this practice a full fledged “epidemic”.