Yesterday we helped celebrate our community’s centennial birthday by performing a couple of lion dances and demonstrations throughout the day in our town’s main park. The weather was perfect and the response from the crowd we had gathered was spectacular. I have performed hundreds of demonstrations over the years but yesterday’s experience struck a chord within me and reminded me of the importance of maintaining mindfulness and staying in the moment.There were three senior citizens seated in chairs at our first lion dance performance that were just out of range when the lucky lettuce was tossed. When we completed the dance I gathered up three small pieces of lettuce that had not been claimed by the crowd and hand delivered them to these three ladies. The heartfelt appreciation they expressed really made my day and the ripples of positive energy their reaction generated continue to feed my soul.
I often think of how fate conspires to bring people into our lives. When one considers the infinite improbability of meeting a particular person at a particular time, these serendipitous encounters must be savoured. How many opportunities do we miss by not truly appreciating what is happening at a particular moment in time? I have noticed that everyone my day brings me in contact with can have a profound affect on my life and thus I can have a similar affect on everyone else. Something as simple as an act of kindness or an expression of joy can start the ripples that create a wave of change.
Yesterday was a good day.
"Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.”
- Leo F. Buscaglia (1924-1998)
1 comment:
I have to say that every word written here has the same impact on me as the serendipitous encounters you have written about. For example; I'm working out of town at the moment, and am writing this from my motel room I share with myself. I had never considered myself a highly sociable being, preferring the company of select individuals, and treasuring my alone time. But with the amount of time I'm spending by myself nowadays, I yearn for some kind of meaningful contact with people I know, not just the idle conversation with the crew I'm working with. So, I read your post, with these feelings forefront, and began to go through the events in my day to try and identify any moment that I had oovqnxpzlet pass by. And I have to say, there were several. I realized that even when a stranger held the door for me, or the girl in the car beside me smiled instead of turning away, these moments helped ease my loneliness. And I have to admit that you were right. If I hadn't read this post, I believe those moments would have passed me by. I can't imagine what other big, more significant moments I've lost just because I never bothered to notice them.
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