“Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.”
Buddha
You know when you go to a store, for example, and the person behind the counter is happy and friendly and in response the customers are also much happier and friendly. Contrast that with the customer service person that may be in a bad mood, may just not want to be there. The customers in response are more transactional. Surely this must make day, of the person that is already not happy, just a little worse.
It takes virtually no energy to be friendly and interactive with people, but giving people that are having a bad day a tad of your joy, may well help push their day in a better directions as their future interactions may well cascade in a happier direction.
It reminds me of a time when we were mountaineering in Russia and as part of the acclimatization process we would climb higher every day, but then return to the village every night. Behind the bar was one of the most attractive women I had ever met, but she was also the most grouchy. Possibly as a result of being hit on by drunken men on a nightly basis.
Anyhow, For some reason I decided that I would take it upon myself to see if I could make her smile. I tried every time I went to the bar, but to no avail….finally on the last night I completely butchered a sentence in the local dialect and she burst out laughing…. for the rest of the night she was much friendlier.
I would go so far as saying that happiness grows by being shared.
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