Excerpt from Anodea Judith’s The Global Heart AwakensChapter 18
What’s Love Got to Do With It?
The Heart Has Its Reasons
Mike Herr is not your typical postal worker. For 38 years he has made it his mission to cheer up the customers in the long lines at his post office. He jokes with them or offers a compliment, even if it’s simply writing “Nice Sneakers!” on an envelope. His motto: “If you can’t say something nice about someone, you’re just not looking hard enough.” As a result, his community has made him the grand marshal of the homecoming parade. The kids took to the streets when his boss told him to take down the decorations he had put up in his office. People line up to buy stamps from him just because he’s so much fun to talk to. They walk away uplifted with a better attitude for the day. Even schoolteachers have said that Mike inspired them to be more positive with their students, showing how simple acts can have ripple effects.
I used to drive my kids to school in Berkeley, California. Every morning, rain or shine, a beaming elderly man would be standing on the corner with a big smile, waving and saying “Have a nice day” to each car that passed by. He was always greeted with honks of appreciation, and it seemed that he exuded positivity into the otherwise dreary commute. He became a much-loved fixture for many years with this simple act.
In a Canadian drive-through coffee establishment, the generosity of one customer who paid for the customer behind him set up a “pay-it-forward” momentum that lasted for three hours and 228 customers. A seven-year-old boy, Dylan Siegel, raised $30,000 for research for his best friend, who had a rare disease. At five years old, Haley Whatley set up a yearly donation of stuffed animals for her local children’s hospital. By the time she entered college, she had donated nearly 30,000 stuffed animals to sick children. A homeless man returned a diamond ring mistakenly dropped into his begging cup and received $100,000 in donations from the community. In Dallas, sisters Isabelle and Katherine Adams, ages six and nine, improved lives in distant Ethiopia and India by raising $120,000 through selling origami ornaments and collecting matching funds for their cause.
These are small acts of kindness and generosity that ripple into the collective field in unexpected ways. They can be enacted by anyone, rich or poor, young or old. They are not done with hope of reward, but from an open heart. They do not solve all the world’s problems, but each one helps to bring a little more heaven down to earth. Even small acts make a difference. We can all be part of this awakening, inspiring others to do the same.
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