Every single day I see miracles all around me. Every single day I wake up ready to be surprised by life and what it drops at my feet. Every single day I am more grateful than the day before.
I keep understanding what I have taken as one of my personal mantras in life: "Whatever we do to others, we do to ourselves first." The more I live, the more that it becomes clear that we are all one, that there´s no ´you´and ´me´ there´s US. I was raised to treat others with kindness and sometimes I did, sometimes not so much.
As time goes by I have learned that it is the only way to go. I know that I will never know what you are going through, where you come from or how you are doing, but, I do know that being kind to you is not a sacrifice and by doing so I am just being kind to myself.
It´s amazing to me how little gestures can make such a difference in my life as well as the lives of others. Unbeknownst to you, that smile, that pat on my shoulder, that simple ´thank you´has gotten me through the day many times. For the past couple weeks I have been thinking about this a lot. In my life it always seems that a series of events highlight a particular principle. This past two weeks I have been experiencing a lot of the consequences of little gestures, either done by me or done by others to me.
I have the most amazing family and friends, the ones that always seem to know when to call, text, email, or send a smoke signal, for no other reason than to make me smile. As I have been away from many I have learned that time and distance have no effect on relationships based on love and respect. Love is the strongest bond, the fastest conductor, the most beautiful messanger. Love is also so simple that it becomes complicated. To me, and in my experience, love is just that one call, that one text, that one hug, the beautiful silence and the crazy nights, all in one.
I also find that in my life, the language of love is like love, simple. I believe love communicates in little gestures that seemingly without a reason touches us and lifts us up.
I was listening to Argentine singer Patricia Sosa talk about her foundation. She has a foundation to help a native tribe in Argentina, the Tobas. She was telling the story of how she got involved in that work. Talk about little gestures. In 2008 that particular tribe in the Argentine Chaco was going through a hard time, two children had died of hunger, a teenage had tried to commit suicide, the situation was desperate. So the shaman of the tribe gathered them together to do a ´fire ceremony´to ask for help. So there they are, arund the fire, asking for help. In that remote area where they are, while doing the ceremony a car passed by and they heard a song by Patricia about LOVE. They took that as a sign and the next day they went to the closest town to find out who the singer was. Once they found out who she was they also found out she was singing in a month in another city not far, not close. So they got tickets for one of the tribe members (Norma) to travel to where she was going to sing. She left a red envelope in the ticket office for Patricia letting her know the situation of the tribe and how they needed her help. Twenty days went by until Patricia opens the red envelope and reads the story. In the letter they left a phone number. Patricia calls the number right away to find out it was the number of the closest town´s church. She talks to the priest who tells her that Norma was right there next to him in church. Patricia speaks with Norma who tells her that she was in church waiting for her call. To which Patricia said." but it´s been 20 days, what if I never called?" She said that then Norma laughed and said to her."neah, this is all in God´s hands." Thats how her foundation got started and keeps helping the Tobas in all she can. You can check her foundation here
That to me sums up what I am tryig to say. Little gestures, little kind efforts, those are the words of love. Let´s all speak that language, we don´t need anything other than a good disposition to change, our life and that of others.
One little gesture a day, one smile, one hug, one note...please do join me in passing this on.
P.
