June 22, 2012
It happened about three years ago. I was simply running errands in my
neighborhood. I was in my usual frantic
running pace, packing having packed too many errands into a short period of
time. I had stopped off in the complex near my home to drop off my dry cleaning
and pick up a frozen yogurt from my favorite frozen yogurt store. As I was in route to the yogurt shop, I
noticed an elderly woman having difficulty opening the door to a small
privately owned gift shop. I simply
noticed this as I was walking right by her, having just left off my dry
cleaning, which was located literally right next door to the gift shop. I stopped only an instant to assist the woman
as she entered the small shop. She
turned briefly toward me, smiled a beautiful warm loving smile, said thank you,
and then quickly disappeared into the shop.
The only significance that I felt from that almost unconscious movement
was that I felt penetrating warmth that radiated from her smile into my body
and I felt incredibly joyful.
And then it happened…
I turned around from the gift shop door to be on my merry way, having
just basked in the warmth of this elderly woman’s smile when I almost ran over
another very tiny elderly woman. She was
standing right smack in front of my path to the yogurt store. Before I could apologize for accidentally
almost knocking her clean off the face of the earth, she handed me a small
white card and envelope. And simply
said, “You look like a nice girl, I think you could use this.” Laughing in response, mostly from being
called a girl, I barely looked into this very tiny woman’s eyes, as the
card, while small, seemed to be blocking any glimpse I could get of her. Looking down at the card, I noticed the
artwork. It appeared that this woman had
drawn, in color pencil, a scene of a home, with a lush flowering garden around
it and a white picket fence, complete with a mailbox. The mailbox flag was raised and the door to
the mailbox was open. The green, red,
blue, and yellow colors of the pencil drawn flowers leapt off the page and I
swear I could smell their fragrance. On
the upper left hand corner of the card were hand-written the words in brown
pencil, “Happy Mail.”
As I looked up to thank the woman, she was gone. I turned quickly and frantically around and I
could not find her anywhere. I had
become so enthralled with the unexpected gift that she had given me, that I
completely lost site of where she had gone.
I had not caught a glimpse of her face, let alone her name. I didn’t even know from what direction she
had come and I certainly had no idea into which direction she disappeared. The moment was incredibly surreal.
Having given up on finding the tiny little angel, I glanced
back down at the beautiful card. I opened it.
The inside of the card was blank.
There was no message written or printed inside. Turning the card around, I looked on the back
hoping there would be some notation of the artist and that I could locate who
she was on the Internet so that I could thank her. The only thing that was hand written on the
back in brown pencil and with beautiful, elegant penmanship was, “You have
received Happy Mail. Write a message
inside and pass it on.” I smiled, more
warmth penetrated into my body, this time resonating within me and I
shuddered. Goose bumps had appeared on
my skin but I wasn't cold. I was simply
moved by this beautiful woman’s gesture.
Looking back up and around one more time to see if I could catch
a glimpse of her, I moved toward my Jeep completely forgetting my yogurt
stop. I wanted to get home as quickly as
possible so that I could Google “Happy Mail” for any clues of who this angel
may be and where I could thank her.
Needless to say, my Google inquiry did not produce any results. Not wanting to break the chain of this
blessing, I grabbed a pen and wrote out a loving message to my dad and
mom. I slid the card into the equally
white envelope, addressed it, stamped it and proceeded to walk it down to my
complex’s mailbox.
As I slid the envelope into the tiny slit where outgoing
mail went, I sent out a blessing of gratitude to the woman at the gift shop who
allowed me to assist her in opening the door and gifted me with such a
joy-filled smile and to the little angel who handed my the “Happy Mail” shortly
afterwards. Such gestures, while seeming
so small, had made a profound and lasting effect.
Now three years later, I have been given the opportunity to
launch a foundation to promote peace and love within oneself and one’s
surrounding community. Inspired by the tiny woman whose name I still do not
know, we created a version of her happy mail.
We call them “Blessings Cards.”
They can be used in the manner that inspired their creation (simply
passing them on, one at a time, to people you want to extend a blessing) or
they can be used to provide a job for someone in need. We explain how we have set the use of these
Blessing Cards up, but of course, you can do whatever your heart desires with
this project.
Simply
order one or more packages of Blessing postcards and hand them to a person in
need (such as a homeless person) with some money (We suggest a wage of $5-10.00
for each packet). When you hand the
packet of postcards to the person, simply ask the person if you can hire them
to give away one individual blessing postcard to each person they may come into
contact with as they go through the day.
If the person agrees, pay them the wage of $5-10/packet and then hand
the person you just hired the packet of postcards to disseminate.
The good
energy you create by providing a job to a person and the good energy the person
whom you have hired creates is astonishing, because now you have provided that
person with the means to give a blessing to someone else. The person receiving the card will in turn,
feel great as they are reminded to be Love, Peace, or Joy. In addition, the person receiving the card
can turn around and send the card out to someone else with a personal
message. It is the job that keeps on
giving love, peace, and joy. And it
begins with One – that one is YOU.
One
package of Blessing Postcards with original photography donated by Christine
Hoey provides you with 2 cards of each design
(Joy-Gram, Love-Gram, Peace-Gram).
To order your Blessings Postcards at cost, please complete the order
form found at http://www.rushingtoyoga.org/loveprojects.php
If you
choose to engage in this Love Project, without ordering the Rushing to Yoga
Foundation Blessings Postcards, no worries.
Please simply write us an email, addressed to rushingtoyoga@gmail.com to
let us know what you are doing and how you are going about doing it so that we
can share your Love Project story on our Love Project website. (http://rtyloveprojects.blogspot.com/)
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