Wednesday afternoon, my Power Lunch reading buddy bobbed her way through the school lunch line, a smiling whirl of braids and barettes, and presented me with an orange tissue paper flower attached to a popsicle stick.
The flower looked like the type you'd find adorning a platter of sweet & sour chicken at a Chinese food buffet. It's the sort of thing I would have slipped into my pocket and brought home with me when I, too, was 8 years old. In fact, I still hold on to pretty scraps of this and that. Colorful strips of satin ribbon and lightly creased slips of pretty tissue paper dominate my collection of gift wrap. Odds and ends that make their way to me among the everyday jumble.
"Did you see the news?" she asked me as we climbed the stairs to the library. I had, of course--and knew the exact story she was referring to: the major earthquake that hit her family's native home of Haiti just the day before. I'd seen the coverage online. The wreckage and chaos. An immense amount of sadness. The phone lines were all down, so her parents weren't able to get through to their relatives. I cannot imagine.
When I got back to the office, I spent some time online reading about the aftermath and the relief efforts and the countless people who had risen to the occasion, helping in whatever way they can. Indeed, beauty has a way of presenting itself in heartfelt gestures among the ruins.
"And she shows you where to look among the garbage and the flowers." --Leonard Cohen
_________________________________________________________________________ © 2010 Good Karma Housekeeping. Making the space--one heartfelt gesture at a time--to live happily ever after.
