Grateful for this one moment

Gratitude can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. It makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow. Melody Beattie

I am moved by this picture. The photographer and both beings must have experienced a magical moment. Gratitude flows from the creatures interacting. The difference in size draws attention immediately. Yet as you look closer it is clear that they both offered one another with something delicate and sincere.

Their exchange as listener, musician, giver and receiver makes the image vibrant and alive. What did that young girl play on her violin – what did that great creature hear? Without those details we are left with an example of gratitude. She was heard and her audience, with an appearance of gentle presence, was entertained.

This interchange may seem extraordinary and in many ways this is true. Yet these two beautiful beings, created in a moment of God‘s joy, interact with one another on a daily basis through the world in which they live in. Passing one another in the crowded and noise filled streets of their homelands in India and other far eastern countries. Their patient, quiet presence to one another, offers a heartfelt moment in loving a life of gratitude.This is where ‘meals become feasts and strangers become friends’. The risk is obvious. Yet in taking these risks, our lives are changed. We experience the world as a place filled with opportunities ‘hidden before us in plain sight’ (words shared from the wisdom of Cynthia Bourgeault).

Take the risk. The world could open to you in ways you have never imagined.