Sai Baba, an Indian spiritual guru, once said, "[s]elfless service alone gives the needed strength and courage to awaken the sleeping humanity in one's heart."
Being of service to others taught me many lessons. One, in particular, that was particularly powerful was the awareness and understanding that my ego voice wants to assert itself into the experience. How often had I done something for someone or something based on a need to satisfy myself? If I donate this money, I will feel better. If I drop a back of clothes at the door of the domestic violence shelter, I will have done something and feel quietly smug about it. After all, I want to be humble about it, or at least have my friends think I am!
While both are acceptable ways to contribute, the attitude in which I approached the opportunity to be of service did not feel right. I felt conflicted and struggled to put away those 'bad' feelings until I explored my true intent. The power of reflection and connection to a spiritual side of myself helped me realize that deep-seated fears motivated my wanting to be of service, or at least some of it. I also understood that I had a great capacity to be loving and compassionate and a desire to share with those less fortunate. That is who I am and desire to be, and I hope to realize it.
Once I opened my mind and dropped all pretense, it was not hard to get to a place where I knew that I was no different than you, and you were no different than me. We are all on this human journey together. We all express ourselves differently and may live in very different conditions. Still, we are all human and live on the same earth. Help those who could use it, do it without fanfare, trust your heart and follow it.
Recently, a friend donated two bikes to the bike club. She left on my front porch a mountain bike and an electric bike. I contacted the school, and they said they had no room to store them and would have to forego the opportunity. I thought, now what do I do? I listened to my heart, and the quiet inspiration I received said, just let them stay there, and the need will come. Within the week, the man painting my house asked if they were available. He is homeless and can only travel by walking. He would start a new full-time job building tiny houses for others in need, and a bicycle would help him travel more efficiently. He now has an electric bike to get to work, and one day he may be able to obtain one of the tiny houses he will be building. I am always amazed by how beautiful this world and my life are, and I am deeply thankful.
This exquisite poem speaks to me and is foundational to my life of service.
Small Kindnesses
"I've been thinking about the way, when you walk
down a crowded aisle, people pull in their legs
to let you by. Or how strangers still say "bless you"
when someone sneezes, a leftover
from the Bubonic plague. "Don't die," we are saying.
And sometimes, when you spill lemons
from your grocery bag, someone else will help you
pick them up. Mostly, we don't want to harm each other.
We want to be handed our cup of coffee hot,
and to say thank you to the person handing it. To smile
at them and for them to smile back. For the waitress
to call us honey when she sets down the bowl of clam chowder,
and for the driver in the red pick-up truck to let us pass.
We have so little of each other, now. So far
from tribe and fire. Only these brief moments of exchange.
What if they are the true dwelling of the holy, these
fleeting temples we make together when we say, "Here,
have my seat," "Go ahead—you first," "I like your hat."
"Small Kindnesses" by Danusha Laméris from HEALING THE DIVIDE: POEMS OF KINDNESS AND CONNECTION, copyright © 2019 Green Writers Press.
The Thankful series was initially published in November 2021.
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