I watched a young man at the corner store; his shoulders we’re hunched, as he reached out his hand. “Please,” he begged. “Can you spare a little something to keep the last of winter away?”

His hands trembled as he watched one, then another and another, again – emerge from the shop with arms overflowing. A sundry of breakfast items, mostly – coffee, egg sandwiches and spicey fried potatoes.

As the last of the crowd shuffled through, I could see his desperation building. Though, as if on cue, a little one – not more than 7 or 8 years old – stopped to stand before him. “Where is your coat?” she asked.

“I don’t have one,” he said. And, noting the perplexed look upon her face offered, “Some folks…they just can’t afford it.”

The child’s mother clenched her jaw as she shuffled through her purse. As her eyes narrowed, the shuffling became more deliberate – almost aggressive. “I swear, they really need to do something about you people. She placed a dollar bill into his hand, “Here, this’ll get you started.”

As she turned to walk towards her car, the little one stayed. “You can have mine,” she smiled, unzipping her jacket.

Children have a way of cutting through to the heart of this world’s ‘far too complex’ problems. Issues like poverty, hunger – and, more recently, weighing into a debate on gun violence. Their thoughts are not yet jaded; they see a need, they respond. They are both the source and embodiment of a healing heart.

“Freedom and love go together,” Jiddu Krishnamurti writes. Within a child’s mind, there is no distinction. To them, the answers are simple – approach all things with the energy of compassion.

This is what I wish to share with you today, a moment to express and experience the love shared so freely here. For it’s only when our the heart is ‘right’ that we may begin to effect a change.

In peace my sweet friends…

Namaste ❣