Bringing Delight to the World

I have a joyful thread that is woven throughout my life and that is to bring a smile to the people who serve me, whether it is a grocery store clerk, a medical assistant at the doctor’s office, or a seemingly disembodied voice on the other end of the phone.

If you are rushed or not feeling well, it can be so easy to be snippy and short and totally miss that the person you’re engaging with is a fellow human being with their own story that has all the ups and downs of human life. Before my heart began to open, when I made a call to my credit card company or my internet provider or a medical laboratory that screwed up my bill, and especially if I was put on hold for a long period of time, or was accidentally hung up on, it was easy to slip into reaction and even entitlement.

It took me a long time to see the price I paid for being reactive and closing this person out of my heart.  Now, 91.5% of the time, my intention is to connect with them heart to heart. And I’ve had so many wonderful interchanges with people, even the ones who start out being cantankerous! It evokes such joy to bring laughter, joking, and connection into the conversation. And both of us feel lighter when it is complete. I say 91.5% of the time because there are still days when I may not be feeling well, or I am rushed for time, and I react. But usually, by the end of the conversation, I apologize, and we are both left wiser through that interaction.

And on those days that the call ends in reaction, oftentimes my mind will begin by judging me. Very quickly I let that go because I know that I am a human being with all the foibles that come from being human and I am a work in progress. As I meet my reactions in my heart, the reactive part of me gets heard and the next time I can more quickly catch myself reacting and instead respond from the wisdom of my heart.

There is a wonderful line from a Rumi poem that speaks so eloquently to what we are exploring here:

‘Find the real world, give it endlessly away, grow rich flinging gold to all who ask. Live at the empty heart of paradox. I’ll dance there with you—cheek to cheek.”

The real world is the world of the heart, and we not only heal the world as we fling the gold of kindness, compassion, and forgiveness into the world, but we also heal ourselves.

Will you come dance with me?