Most People See the Problem and Keep Walking
My job takes me into a lot of rooms.
-Ballrooms
-Conference centers
-Auditoriums
All full of people who are tired, a little skeptical, and hoping this keynote is worth their afternoon
I spend a lot of time thinking about what shifts a room.
Then I read about a heartwarming story about two teenagers in Maple Grove delivering free flowers to seniors. And honestly, it came full circle.
When people talk about wanting to make a difference, they almost always mean it.
They see something that needs attention.
They feel the pull of it.
But life is busy and usually they go back to whatever they were doing.
Andrew Heiden and Hayden Sterling are high school students from Wayzata and Armstrong, Minnesota.
They saw what everyone else sees.
Life slows down at a certain point. The family gets busy. The schedule empties out. And for a lot of seniors at places like SilverCreek on Main, some days go by without a single visitor.
Andrew and Hayden noticed.
-They did not convene a committee
-They did not write a proposal
-They did not wait until they had a plan worthy of announcing
They did something that mattered. They made bouquets.
One in Three Seniors Is Lonely. Two Teenagers in Maple Grove Decided to Do Something About It.
They drove to senior living facilities and handed flowers to people who were not expecting anything.
Just flowers, by hand, and for about a year before anyone outside knew it was happening.
They partnered with Indulge & Bloom at Maple Grove Floral and connected with a local rose supplier to keep it going.
Now they are formalizing as a nonprofit called Blossom of Blessings.
"It's so wonderful to see young men of their age be so kind and considerate to us elderly people. I think it's wonderful, absolutely wonderful." — SilverCreek on Main resident
Someone wakes up on an ordinary Tuesday. Nothing on the calendar. No particular reason for the day to be different from the one before it.
And then two teenagers walk in with flowers and hand them over for no reason except that they wanted to.This makes my heart so warm. Knowing that these young boys cared so much about taking care of others.
Researchers at Rutgers University spent ten months studying exactly what receiving flowers does to a person and found that the lift people feel is not just a nice gesture. It carries. Less anxiety. Less depression. A stronger sense that life is worth showing up for. For days afterward.
One bouquet can do that.
Now consider that one in three U.S. adults aged 50 to 80 reports feeling lonely or isolated, according to a 2024 study published in JAMA. The U.S. Surgeon General has named it an epidemic.
Most of us read that and keep scrolling.
These two went and made bouquets.
Two kids with no budget, no organization behind them, no reason anyone would have blamed them for doing nothing. They just decided the problem was real enough to act on. And they started with what they had.
What This Kind of Kindness Actually Does to the People Around You
I spend a lot of time in rooms full of people who have stopped paying attention to each other. Which isn't necessarily intentional they are just busy.
And sometimes autopilot is easier. I talk about what it looks like to interrupt that.I have watched that shift happen in real time. It is one of the things that keeps me in this work.
Andrew and Hayden did not need a push from their parents for this.
They just cared about people they had never met. And they kept showing up. For a year before anyone wrote about it.
I am in awe of that. Genuinely.
In reality, you 1) see someone. 2) You decide they are worth your attention. 3) Then you actually do something about it.
Most of us get stuck between the second and the third.If you want to see what this looks like inside an organization, here is how I bring this message to corporate rooms.
Here is what gets me about these two specifically.
They did not wait until the nonprofit was established. They did not wait for a budget, a partner, or the right conditions.
They just showed up.
Most of us are waiting for the right conditions.
A lot of seniors are sharp, funny, full of perspective, and genuinely interested in the people around them.
They have raised families and built careers and navigated more change than most of us have seen. And you know how it goes. Everyone means to visit more. And then another month goes by.The people around you right now are carrying more than they are showing you.
Someone once stopped you in the hall to ask how your mom was doing. You have not forgotten them. Neither will the person you do that for today.
Just take the time to show someone you care. It will go a lot further than you realize.
This is exactly why I do what I do. Here is how I bring it into the room
Look for the good. It makes today better.
