I was recently at my daughter’s elementary school when she sheepishly came up to me and said: “Dad, I think I lost my retainer . . . again.” It was the third retainer she lost in the last two months. Each retainer costs $300.

I took a deep breath, actually about ten of them, and asked where it could be. She said: “It got thrown out at lunch. It’s probably in the compost.” I said: “Let’s go . . .,” and we tracked down the custodian. Her name was Pat. I told her of the situation, and she said – “Oh – no problem. It’s not the first time this has happened. We’ll find it.” She left, and came back with a box of rubber gloves. We then proceeded toward the dumpsters, and she began (without a word about us helping) to dig through the many, many bags of lunch-time food.

I put on the gloves, and required that my daughter do the same. While my daughter complained about how “gross” it was to be digging through the food, Pat remained upbeat, and proceeded through the bags as if she was having the time of my life – smile on her face, positive attitude and eagerly making the best of an unpleasant situation. As my daughter complained about the smell, Pat replied: “Oh this is nothing. I’ve got three kids. I’ve done way worse than this. This is no big deal at all.”

We dug through every bag, and no retainer. My daughter then paused, and said: “Oh, let me check my locker again. I think it might be in there.” It turned out that the retainer was buried in her sweatshirt in her locker. We went back to tell Pat the “good news.” She didn’t seem to care that she dug through the trash for an hour for nothing. I would have been furious. Pat just finished cleaning up the mess we had made, and said – “I’m so glad you found it. I know how expensive those things are.”

I thought about Pat all night. In that one hour, Pat provided me, and hopefully my daughter, with a wonderful example of what life can be about – selflessness, enjoying what you do no matter what the situation, attitude making all the difference, humility, resilience, generosity, and patience.

Pat’s not one who stands on the rooftop, and says look at me. She likely doesn’t receive a lot of accolades or make a ton of money. She just goes about her business with a smile on her face and a positive attitude. But she is changing the world like none other. What Pat did was probably no big deal to her, but it was to me. She reminded me how wonderful life is, and how wonderful people can be.

Thank you Pat. And thank you to all of the Pats in the world. You know who you are. You may not get a lot of accolades, you may not have a lot of fame, you may not make a lot of money and you may not stand at the forefront of life. But when it’s all said and done, you are the ones who are changing the world in a positive way.

Timothy Velner is a husband, father, attorney and author living in Minneapolis. You can follow his daily blog – a series of discussions between the worry-self and the present-self at – thespiritualgym.me