I went to buy a coffee and slice of cake. The young woman serving me explained it was a vegan cake and I might notice a different taste and I said I didn’t mind and that lemon and elderflower sounded just what I wanted. Then when taking my money she said she commented she liked my sweater. I softly stopped in my tracks and looked up. “Thank you. My mum knitted this for me and I have always loved it.”
The woman can’t have been much older than 20. My mum made me the jumper in about 1982. This generously knitted wool must be more than twice the age of the person who said she liked it. Indeed my mum had been dead for a few years before she can even have been born. And yet here my mum is, still alive through her love and her care, keeping me physically warm as well as holding my heart. Brought up to the surface by the kindness of this stranger who can clearly never meet or cross paths with her, who simply took the time to pass on a compliment. The woman couldn’t have known the deep down personal joy and wholeness her words would bring. But nevertheless those feelings and gratitude in me are only so beautifully and clearly present because of the compassion of another.
At the risk of making this sound like a sermon, you will never know the effects your thoughtful words and actions will have – and you don’t need to know. Just offer them out. Yield them to the universe and they will do their work. They will do this because you tendered with them an intention of kindness and of love. Because you gave them with no expectation or want of reciprocation The less ego and self in your compassion and benevolence, the less these words are yours and the more they become a fetterless gift. And if you ever receive such a gift (and you do often I would wager) bathe in it, wallow in the joy of it; don’t cling tight. Pass on that bounty to another and then the gift will stay alive and the world will be a better place.
(All this because of the kind words of a stranger and the love of a mother 43 years ago.)
trustingmind 
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