A Beautiful Moment to Remember:

 Last night we were excited about the opportunity that opened up quite suddenly to meet our sister visiting on a professional work related assignment. We met, exchanged smiles, stories off the top of our heart and were growing in curiosity about more stories to be shared over the long conversation. Weather was very nice, not too hot, not too cold, just pleasant. We walked to a close by restaurant, instantly felt invited by everything -- the smiles of waiters, smells of spices, simple & elegant layout of dining place, clean & neat floors, in short everything we witnessed seemed just aligned right to offer us a beautiful experience. And it did offer that and offered more. Sister was sharing away stories after stories that covered her love for this kind of authentic south indian food and how her toddler baby is such a foodie that he happily gobbles up dosas (pancake) after idlis (rice cake) or idlis after idlis with absolutely no-fuss anytime. Clear that this kid has mother's love-for-food genes in abundance. On top of tagging us the dinner she made another special dish to-go. As we shared more smiles over good-byes with waiters and other guests, we began to walk back to the place she was staying that night. Many more stories and hearty laughter later, we exchanged many more gifts including the gifts-of-nature from our community garden fresh produces, mural art "heart-of-the-bay" card & some more special sharing. We hugged, had more laughter moments walking to the car. Finally, as we were about to leave the place, this time for real, I felt like using the restroom real quick, so I walk inside the lobby, look for the restrooms, open the door, walk in and suddenly see this pile of litter in otherwise quite clean room. Don't know why, but for sometime now, I have been drawn to express my thankfulness to janitors through some small conscious random act of clean-ups. In no time, cleaned up the litter, washed my hands, used the restroom, washed the hands again :-) and disappeared from there silently smiling about this beautiful moment to thank the janitors and cleaning crew all over the world deeply appreciating the value they all bring through their tireless work, the works that are so essential yet I feel under appreciated often. As a walk back to the car, it was clear my beaming big smile from this experience was already creating ripples in my heart and our sister and others around. Every moment of my life, may I live in constant awareness of the value that all bees like the janitors bring to our life. For all such bees, here's a big kudos & gratitude -- Thank you all :-). Reflecting on this experience, made me think of Jayesh-bhai's father Ishwar kaka through his work in the area of public sanitation projects in India. Thank you kaka.