Stories From A Heart Filled Adventure
ServiceSpace
--Chandni Sawlani
5 minute read
May 26, 2017

 

A dear friend Varunya, had ordered heart pins to celebrate the lead up to her birthday. I was super inspired by how consciously she had chosen to celebrate herself and others around her and decided I'd do the same. So I reached out to the extraordinary people at Wisdom Crafts and placed my order for 100 hearts. (The folks there, hand make the hearts with heaps of love and ship them across the world at no price tag! You can choose how much you wish to pay.) The night before my birthday celebrations I was a bit disappointed as they hadn't arrived yet. And then first thing the next morning, they arrived! I was ecstatic, such a fun gift to open. And of course the generous people at Wisdom Crafts had sent me more than just hearts, there was a beautiful handmade birthday card along with other little treasures.
It's been such a love filled experience getting to spread smiles and connect beautifully with people :) I found that it's so much easier to spark a heart to heart to connection when the context is created and the hearts were perfect for this. They'd elicit an instant smile and trigger a conversation that was usually about love and human connection. It's been close to a month of distributing them sporadically and each moment of heart sharing had it's beauty. I'm choosing 5 instances to share!

XVA Cafe is my favorite spot in Dubai. It's nestled in the courtyard of a very artsy boutique hotel.  I've been there a handful of times and connected with the wonderful team but never really gone very deep in these connections. I was at the cafe on my birthday and was chatting with the Manager, Moses about a recent conference on mindfulness they'd hosted. He shared how all the guests had together made a handmade card expressing their gratitude for the team. Harshini ran in to get the card and show it to me. They were smiling wide as they shared how appreciated they felt. It was the perfect moment to offer them my love with the hearts, and wow were they pleased! All the kitchen staff stepped out and wished me and I pinned a heart onto their shirts. So all 7 of them were then walking around with their heart pins. Such a great start to my heart adventures. All of them feel like friends now!

Mohmamad is definitely the happiest cab driver I have met in Dubai. From the moment Sonia and I stepped into his taxi you could tell there was something about him from his wide and beautiful smile. We started talking and within the first 5 mins of our cab ride, we already had an invitation to visit him home in Egypt and stay with his family haha. He wouldn't stop smiling and said, 'God has given us the free gift of being able to smile and spread happiness to people all around us. So this is what I like to do!'. He shared about his life. He's the oldest among 6 siblings and has spent most his life  working to support and settle his siblings. Now that they are all settled, he's looking forward to being married himself. What a man :) He'd given us so much by just being who he is and I was so grateful to have the little hearts as a tiny symbol to honor his massive heart. We offered him a couple of hearts for himself to pay forward and (don't know how this is possible) his smile widened! I've got his number and hope to connect with him again at The Goodwill Tribe events.

Another powerful story was of Jay Jacobs, the beautiful kind lady who'd applied for a kindness internship at The Goodwill Tribe. We received 10 applications for 2 positions and were blown away by the pure intent everyone expressed. We decided that we would do our best to honor everyone's intention and invite them to be of service in some way. We were meeting Jay to get her advice on designing kindness programs for schools. Her presence and wisdom was beautiful :) As we parted ways, I presented her with a little box full of hearts. She opened it, sat back, laughed and said 'This is so weird!'. The story goes that just that morning she was watching a video about manifestation and had set the intention to receive hearts that day. What an inexplicable little miracle!

Svetlana is a lovely girl who works at an ice cream parlor. There was just something about her that made me want to reach out and so I gave her a little pouch with hearts. She beamed a beautiful smile and shared that no one had ever given her anything in this manner in Dubai. It warmed my heart to be a part of this moment.

I'm volunteering at an extraordinary learning journey called the Laddership Circle. It's a six week program for project initiators who are moved to lead from love. I was sharing my heart stories with the friends in my circle and a day later I find out that a few of them have gone on to order hundreds of hearts themselves. Wow humbling to watch the ripples spread!

It's magical to experience this wave of love. It's impossible to determine where it started and redict where it will end (Actually I don't think it will ever end). I could trace my inspiration back to Varunya who claims that her inspiration lies in The Goodwill Tribe, and then you think about what inspired The Goodwill Tribe and what inspired Wisdom Crafts and you just keep going deeper and deeper into the infinite layers and ripples of love in this world. I'm also so grateful for my dear friend Sonia who, I realized, shared all of the above experiences with me!

You can find out more about Wisdom Crafts and order hearts to be shipped to you :)

 

 

Posted by Chandni Sawlani on May 26, 2017


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