Stories of Kindness from Around the World

"Katy, please come to the front desk. Katy, you have a package at the front desk."

Immediately my sensors were on. Package? Why do I have a package? Did I order something? Did my mom send me something? Maybe it's from one of my clients. They might have mailed their paperwork in using priority mail. But they wouldn't have called me over the intercom. Hmmmm, a package.

Wait a minute.........could it be........is it...did they....

As I approached the front desk Sabrina and Tatiana sat comfortably in their chairs in front of their computers. Nothing was out of the ordinary. They were focused on their tasks at hand and barely noticed me approaching, a smile already planted on my face.

"You called me" I said, somewhat suspiciously. For an instant I became unsure that there even was a package there waiting for me, maybe I was confused.

Sabrina turned to Tatiana. "Oh yeah, the doorman brought this up and told us to give it to you." As Tatiana pulled a brown paper bag from under her desk, straining from the weight of its' contents to pass it over her desk from her sitting position.

"What is it?" Sabrina asked.

Once glance inside, my suspicion was confirmed. Laying inside were 2 tupperware containers. I could not see their contents from my bird's eye view but I could see a fresh mango and a bag of chocolates peeking from the corner of the bag. And the incredible aroma had already permeated the front office area.

"Someone has tagged me." I replied with a smile and a shake of my head.

I rounded the corner, while dipping my hand into the bag. I lifted a round container full of fresh made Dal, finding underneath an even larger container filled with warm aloo parathas (my favorite kind!!), rice, and yogurt. In a smaller tub was the perfect amount of pickled mango. Mmmmmmmmmmm!! I set the bag down and saw an envelope amongst the Tupperware. Inside was a beautiful card with pressed flowers on the top. Inside read, "They say the world is round. What we send out eventually finds its way back home." Within that same envelope, a Smile card.

I had to swallow about three times as I stared at this card. My heart was beating fast and my body was electric with the shower of warmth that seemed to just pour through this card into my hands, throughout the rest of my body. I could do nothing but shake my head and smile, trying not to cry.

As Sujatha and I sat eating this amazingly delicious food an intense realization came over me. The joy and gratitude that I was feeling must have been the same feeling that went through the people that we fed on Saturday's event!! It was the exact same thing. I was quietly going about my day when someone stopped me and made an offering to me, an offering from the heart that I was 100% not expecting. I sat wondering who had done this and why, marvelling at the time and care that they took to provide such a healthy, delicious, well balanced meal. I stared at the careful packaging. I thought about how amazing it was that someone took time out of their day just to do this one thing for me, this one simple thing that had so many layers of meaning and depth. I recognized how much this one gesture meant to me and how much it brightened my day. It made me feel loved, it made me feel that someone (or some people) really cared about me enough to go out of their way to provide me with something as simple as a delicious lunch.

I know I felt deeply about sharing lunches with the homeless on Saturday. I enjoyed it, I experienced a lot, I witnessed people (myself included) take away lessons that will be with them for the rest of their lives, I watched them transform fears and doubts, I observed the smiles that erupted from the heart onto the faces of everyone, those being fed and those feeding. It was very meaningful to me. However, being here today, receiving this meal, enjoying it with a friend, I became one of those people. I was in their shoes and I believe I felt how they must have; it suddenly all came together for me.

I cannot express to you what I feel. I am not sad yet their is something so strong in my heart that I feel like I must cry. I am so grateful. I am so inspired. I am so contented and so joyful. I am so so lucky.

Thank you. Thank you not only for this lunch, but for this lesson. It is more meaningful to me than I could have ever possibly imagined.