The past month has been filled with so many different blessings, I can't help but feel so grateful for the ecosystem that supports my journey and plants seeds along the way which sprout in their own time into such beautiful moments. 

In the first week of school, Sareena decided she wanted to share some love with her new classmates so she took a bunch of heart pins in her bookbag and wanted to gift one to each of her classmates.  She's really taken to the heart pins and loves them so much, so it's always lovely to see her sharing these as a way of sharing her own love with friends.  Thank you Ani Aunty for being Sareena's secret heart pin supplier :)  Then in Sareena's second week of school, while I was waiting at the door of her classroom in the afternoon she quickly ran up to me, opened her bookbag and pulled out a Smile Card.  Can you imagine the surprised look on my face when I saw a Smile Card coming out of Sareena's bookbag (and knowing I had nothing to do with it being there :))?  I was all smiles :)  Her teacher then shared that she was teaching the children about being kind that day and gave them all a Smile Card to experiment with and try to proactively be kind to someone else that day.  I was so happy to see that her teacher, who was also involved with coordinating World Kindness Day activities last year, was paying it forward this year as well and teaching the children about kindness using Smile Cards!

A few weeks back, as I waited outside of Sareena's classroom to pick her up from school in the afternoon, one of the parents came along and shared that she thought the Dalai Lama had come to their school today.  We were all totally surprised and had heard nothing about it ahead of time, so we weren't sure if it really was true.  We later found out that indeed His Holiness the Dalai Lama did in fact come to Sareena's school that day to engage in dialogue with young people about the responsibility they hold to collectively change the world.  I was intrigued by what the teachers may have shared with the children about His Holiness and I was smiling when Sareena told me -- firstly, she couldn't believe he was 80 years old!  When I asked her what she learned about him, she told me, "Mommy, do you know he is one of the wisest teachers in the world?"  What a wonderful thing to know about him and such a blessing that he visited the school and all the children had a chance to welcome him as they formed a long walkway while singing to him!  They also had a chance to spend part of the day watching 10 Tibetan monks making a beautiful sand mandala and then they even got to watch them destroy it at the end and learn about why they do this.  The following day, I was blessed with the chance to go and see him speak in London and was touched by his humility and little acts of love and was laughing throughout as he has a great sense of humour :) 

A couple of weeks later, I received an email from one of the school heads sharing that they absolutely loved the World Kindness Day celebrations last year when Nimo came to the school and she wondered if I wanted to help them continue this new tradition to celebrate World Kindness Day again this year!  It was lovely to tap into the collective inspiration of folks in the ecosystem who have experience introducing kindness in a school context, as they shared an amazing collection of ideas that I could suggest to the teachers and school.  Really looking forward to see what plans unfold for this year as the school takes kindness activities to another level! :)

It's always a gift to spend time with people whose simple presence opens up your heart and yesterday was one of those days with Jayeshbhai :)  Ani kindly invited me to join them for lunch at their home when Jayeshbhai and his childhood friend Zaheerbhai were coming over and we had a wonderful afternoon together.  As always, it's such a gift to hear first-hand service stories from Jayeshbhai about inspiring moments from the community in India.  And I love how he invites us into the experience by offering little nuggets of wisdom to enable us to integrate the lessons from his stories into our own lives.  Then he spontaneously mentioned wanting to come over to our home to see Deep, and what do you know, they both came over in the evening, which was such a blessing for all of us, and especially the girls. Ariyana was immediately drawn to Jayeshbhai as she held onto his hand and walked him into our home and sat so calmly on his lap for most of the time we were together :) Kids learn so much just by being in the presence of others, so this was truly a beautiful gift for them to spend this precious time with Jayeshbhai.



Now we are making final preparations for Nipun's arrival tomorrow and the upcoming retreat on Sunday at our home, where 60-70 people are coming together to reflect on cultivating "Inner, Outer and Collective Well-being." (yikes, we surpassed our original max capacity by 20, but it's too beautiful of an opportunity to not figure out a way to squeeze everyone in) :)  And planning this retreat itself has been filled with many a blessing, as you can imagine :)  A couple of months ago, we weren't entirely sure if the retreat was going to be happening as we had originally envisioned, and now a couple of months later, not only will Nipun be joining us to anchor the gathering amidst his jam-packed European travel schedule, but also Satish Kumar will be joining us to share inspiring stories and lived wisdom from his incredible personal journey of the past 79 years!  A former monk, inspiring Gandhian activist who walked with Vinoba Bhave for three years, and author of several books including his well-known autobiography, No Destination: Autobiography of a Pilgrim, Satish Kumar embarked on an incredible 8,000 mile walking pilgrimage, in his early 20's, carrying no money and depending on the kindness and hospitality of strangers. He began his pilgrimage at Gandhi's grave in Delhi , and ended it at John F. Kennedy's grave in Washington, and along the way met with the leaders of all four nuclear nations at the time (Russia, France, UK, and the US) and had given each one a packet of “peace tea,” which had been given to them by women working in a tea factory. Tell the leaders, said the women, that “when you think you need to press the button, stop for a minute and have a fresh cup of tea.”!  What a blessing it will be to have this incredible opportunity to learn from Satish-ji.

Today, as I walked in the door from a little shopping excursion with Ariyana for final bits and pieces for the retreat, I stumbled upon a large box at our doorstep.  When I opened the box, I had the biggest smile on my face -- I found a little note, which read, "Dear Trishna, Some small offerings for your blessed day.  Lots of Love x" along with 5 gorgeous meditation cushions which read, "Love is all you need" :)  My heart lit up as I thought of somebody's cup of generosity overflowing as they felt inspired to share their love in this way.  Life is beautiful :)  I look forward to paying forward this love at the retreat and beyond! 

Always feeling very grateful for the way in which this ecosystem holds space for such beautiful unfoldings in our hearts and in our lives.  We'll keep you posted as more blessings unfold when Nipun lands in London this weekend and Uncle Nimo returns next month to spread some love -- what a beautiful few months of inspiration here in London! :)