With compliments
A compliment can be fraught; and not just because it presents a
spelling challenge for so many.
A compliment can be like an oasis in a desert. You might thirst for it like
fresh water, but it remains out of your reach. Sometimes the people you
need to hear a compliment from are bone dry and they struggle to draw down
deeply to find sustenance for those around them. A compliment can be hard to
give and evasive when you need it most.
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Thank you to the staff member of 99 Bathurst Street who created
the ‘Free compliments’ sign with detachable compliments. This was found in one
of the lifts.
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A compliment can be like a schoolyard prank. Everyone else gets it
and you have a sinking feeling that maybe it’s you who’s the brunt of the joke,
you just haven’t worked it out yet. Or it’s like a lie; something that can’t possibly be
the truth speaking. A compliment can be hard to hear.
A compliment can come in plural; a tidal wave of attention surging
on your shore so you are gasping for air above the foaming density of the
ocean around you. All those compliments can overwhelm you.
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One Girl chose ‘You’re awesome’.
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I really like you.
That was a good idea.
You’re wonderful.
That was really kind of you.
You’ve done a fantastic job.
You are one of the cleverest people I know.
You’re so beautiful.
You look great.
A compliment is appreciation, acknowledgement, praise, validation,
admiration, courtesy.
There’s nothing hard in that.
A compliment is an act of love: an expression of love to someone as you give a compliment and as an act of self-love to accept a compliment.
That’s not hard at all.
What’s the last compliment you gave or received?
