Fireman Appreciation

One Saturday night at the restaurant I was just getting ready to leave as one of my co-workers asked me a question.  There were a bunch of NYC Firemen visiting the area and they came to the restaurant for dinner.  The party filled up the back room.  There were probably 16 men or so, big, hunky, young, old, all shapes and sizes.  They were well fed with NY Strip steaks and Sockeye Salmons by the time I got to them.

One of the waiters was married to a sister of the man who brought the firefighters to the restaurant.  He always used to joke with me about my dancing and say, “Come on Sarah, do that move” and he would try to gyrate his upper body while pushing his fists out into the air!  Funny guy.  I would say, “No, no,” embarrassed, thinking he was making fun of me.

Well, this night, he asked me to come and show the Firemen my moves, “Come on Sarah, will you show them your moves?”  It was late, I was just leaving work, he was feeling a little saucy, I could tell, and I thought, “OK, I’ll do this.”

I followed him into the back room feeling excited and apprehensive.

He introduced me to the group and probably said something like, “Hey guys, this is Salsa Sarah, she does this great move like this (trying to imitate me) and I want her to show you her dancing!”

I smiled. “Hey everybody,” I said.

“OK, here we go,” I thought.

And you know what.  GO we went!

I took my hair down, pulled out of it’s ponytail, and shook it out in front of the men.  Instantly the temperature in the room rose.  I heard some sounds of excitement coming from the men.  They were ready!

Then I put my Salsa on…

I rolled my shoulders back in that typical Latin style and started dancing the basic salsa step (not a big deal!).

Well, this room of Firemen went up into an uproar.  They were hooting and hollering, yelling, it was all kinds of happening in there.

THEN, I threw in a little head whip with a right hand turn, hair flying through the air around my face, as I slowly turned around just milking the turn with sabor.

They were besides themselves.  They were banging on the walls, they were banging on the tables.  The cooks from the back of the kitchen came out because of the noise.  Other waiters and waitresses were taking a look trying to see what the commotion was all about.

I remember looking back after the display and seeing the staff’s faces slack with smiles and eyes lit with excitement, one young cooks face bright red.

After those few moments, I looked around the room and saw this beautiful, tall, largely built Firefighter smiling joyfully as he took his sat down at the table.

Sweet memory.

What does it feel like to be appreciated?

How can you show more appreciation for yourself and others today?

What’s important about that?

Post below!

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4 Comments

  1. Jacqueline X

    This was wonderfully written… Thanks for sharing… I can feel it…I can feel more appreciation for others by being present… Fully engaged… And asking for others to do the same….

    I feel appreciated the most after I massage my clients!

    It’s important to me to make others healthier and feel good…

    The best compliments sound something like this…

    ‘That’s the best massage so far… And you know I thought that the last time I was here, but this one was better then that…’ from one of my younger women clients…

    It’s about getting to know them intuitively and spiritually, not just physiologically… And the compliments feel wonderful and warm… Like nice fleece warm blankets at the end of a long cold day!

    Reply
  2. Sarah Haykel

    Ahhh, what a BEAUTIFUL metaphor: “And the compliments feel wonderful and warm… Like nice fleece warm blankets at the end of a long cold day!” Mmmm, : ) Thank you for sharing Jacqueline X!

    Reply
    • Sarah Haykel

      Sure thing : ) Thanks for being here

      Reply

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