Inspiration finds me in the oddest of places. Usually when I am calm, after a yoga class or meditation. And almost always when I'm by myself on a nice long breezy car ride. The inspiration for this blog came while I was spending the weekend at a holistic retreat in Palm Springs.
Those that are close to me know that I have an intense love for animals, all sorts of creatures. We have a "no bug killing" policy in our office. If you see a bug, you trap it and kindly put it back outside where it belongs.
Anyways, I was enjoying a lovely weekend in the desert and sat down to jot down some thoughts in my journal and I placed my journal right on top of an ant. I killed the ant. Not only did I kill the ant, but I started watching it and saw it struggling and this just ripped my heart open, because even though for the most part ants are pretty annoying pesky little guys, they are still living breathing creatures. So, needless to say, this upset me.
Now being away in the desert alone, away from work, away from the city, gives you time to think. I most likely wouldn't be spending time thinking about accidentally killing an ant if I was in the hustle and bustle of my everyday life.
I realized that this was a metaphor for something else. People do things that they simply do not mean to. People do things because they are moving too fast. People hurt others because for most of us, we are too wrapped up in ourselves to realize that our actions may be harming another.
We all need to stop. Stop and observe. Observe ourselves. How are we treating our family? Our friends? Our teachers, bosses, employees, the person at Starbucks? Are we rude or do we smile? Do we bother to make eye contact?
For those of you reading this, I hope for even just a few moments you pause and think about how you treat others. Be a little kinder today. Slow down. Breathe. Think about all of the wonderful things and blessings that are in your life. Especially all of the people around you. Realize that very rarely do the things that we are afraid of happen. Most people act in a state of fear all day, every day. Therefore their actions are fear based, we waste so much time worrying. We need to worry less and love more. Worry less and care more.
There's enough to go around. We are here to teach each other. Those who piss us off the most are our biggest teachers.
As we continue visiting schools with The Farley Project, I want to make sure that the kids observe how they are treating each other. Slow down. Smile. Think about your actions. We want to get through to the kids, that what they think may "not be a big deal" could be a very big deal to someone else. When kids go to school they learn about math, science and history. Why not learn about compassion, love and self esteem?! This is our message. We have been working with one school here in Los Angeles and we are ready to go city by city, school by school, until we make a real difference. If we all became a bit more mindful, the world would be a much sweeter place.
With so much love and smiles,
Elissa