Day 106j: Ladling on Forgiveness & Thanks … (July 29, 2019)
Oleveiroa, the place that had been so cruel & cold just a few days prior, was next on this wondrous list, and it was here that I paused to give yet another humble Gratitude. Yes, the town was essentially deserted, and neither those who had betrayed my journey nor the wonderful children who had been so courageously kind were on hand. And yet I stopped here anyway – to perform a humble ritual of Gratitude; offering two stones I had been carrying since the coast – offering them to the children who had gone so far out of their way to care for me the last time I was here, and yet also to the hundreds of colder-hearted townspeople who had so coldly dismissed the same. After all, every single one of the latter were just as glorious as the former at Heart. They had all simply forgotten their truer warmer nature, and might well one day remember the same …
“One of the main reasons that we lose our enthusiasm for life is because we become unkind towards strangers. We allow what was once a miraculous reunion of long-lost &/or yet-met Friends to become something worthy of angst or indifference. Self-protection becomes our routine, and as a consequence our Love steadily withers and fades … We get so accustomed to his goodness it becomes a routine. And so we come to a valuable lesson about what makes any life meaningful: It is never mere possession or comfort or status or abundance that does so, but rather the scintillating and ever-available awareness of our unique gifts – gifts that only we can give, and gifts that we can always give, whenever meeting another anew. Meaning requires boldness to be reborn, and as such we must each come to remember that conquering trepidation and taking that first step towards kindness is the only way to come to real Self-awareness, the only way to allow our true talents to blossom, and the only way to seize life’s constant opportunities to help bring each other to peace … Every child met along the way comes with the message that God is not yet discouraged of man, and every such meeting is an opportunity for us all to remember the same.” ~ inspired by Tom Hayes & Rabindranath Tagore
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