Even before you read this story, notice in the foto above of my espresso in Paris on 23.12.23, that ONE makes the difference. Keep that in mind, and thank you, Illy! Carry on ...
There is hardly a day that goes by, without even a brief conversation of how insanely the world is behaving at the moment.
Generally – in my experience - the parties of the conversation ask in despair, what can I/we do? What do we do?
Last night I watched a video of Sting performing in Tuscany at his own estate home. I hadn’t noticed the date and, as he opened his show, he was seemingly wanting to weep, as September 11th (2001) had happened that day, hours before this concert. As he performed in the way that only he can, he promised his audience that we are here to be happy, everyone deserves to be happy; they can’t take our joy away from us. And, my home is your home, thank you for coming tonight; our sense of community is important. Instead of canceling his event, he opted to generously touch the lives of his willing audience.
Now. I know that we are all not Sting and, this offering of his was profound. It still is, 23 years later.
In my own world here and now, I am a member of an extraordinary spiritual study group called Everyday Miracles. The other day in our monthly webinar, a lovely woman shared her experience as the daughter of a Holocaust survivor. Her words went something like this:
I feel like history is repeating itself. It terrifies me and I don’t know what I can do ...The other day a Muslim woman in her complete garb came to my yoga class. I was extremely kind, as I am to all of my students. I helped her with the asanas and she seemed to have a lovely time.
Our dear leader Hollie responded with something like this (I am paraphrasing):
That’s what you do. Exactly the way you treated this woman, by being the presence of Love in her midst. Every single act of kindness, to anyone in our day, is what we do. This is how we make a difference; this is how things shift.
What I would add to Hollie’s very kind wisdom is that, we can trust that our bits of Love will ripple out into the world, in ways we may never know about.
I know a little about this from my own experience as a Food Tour host, when my sister Lisa and I owned Melting Pot Food Tours for nearly 13 years. When we were in business only 2 years, I personally counted 80 countries that I had hosted. Some of my very first, wonderful guests were from Jordan, who invited me to be their guests one day, because the food in Jordan is amazing!
A really lovely couple from Kuwait were my guests one Saturday morning. They seemed a little tentative about introducing themselves, perhaps expecting a cold-shoulder-of-sorts from Americans. I was thrilled to meet and welcome them as were the other guests, and they had a fantastic time. I introduced everyone to Kip’s Toyland at the Market, the oldest toy store in LA. With two little ones at home, this couple spent a fortune in there after our tour, which surely blessed every single party involved!
My passion for food, shared with the world’s children of all ages, has always been a joy-filled way for me to bridge the appearance of borders. Being at the table - during a food tour or otherwise - inevitably brings people together. I’d always said that hosting Food Tours was my contribution to world peace.
In more recent news, my sister Lisa and I went to a local Springfest carnival the other day, to ride the rides. Oh look! There we are on the carousel. You know how I love carousels.
We had a small slew of ride tickets left when we’d seen enough of rickety rides, and it was time to go. We agreed to give our tickets to someone(s) and we spotted a little family who looked kind of raggedy. Lisa was hesitant to approach them, and I suggested that they are probably the ones who would appreciate the kindness the most. She offered the tickets to the woman who seemed quite ecstatic at this surprise of good fortune! We felt great too.
This is what we do. Let’s please not underestimate how far even a little kindness can go.
If we all conspired to be secret agents of Love (a code of our Everyday Miracles group!), imagine what could happen.
Kindness feels so good, doesn’t it? And it keeps us in our joy, which is exactly where we belong, to make a difference in a crazy world.
PS ~ just after I finished this story my Twin, Paigey, face-timed me for the first time ever! I was the ecstatic one this time. She was about to enter the hospital for her nurse’s shift, and I took the chance to sincerely thank her for the Love that she is in the world.
She and all nurses, worldwide, are truly angels and in my experience, they deserve to be appreciated as such. She was very touched, and told me she may have to call me each day before her shift from now on.
I think so too. Imagine! I could be this ecstatic every day. Talk about staying in your joy ...
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