***I was making 108 little hearts out of my favorite Indian clothes of the last 5 years I have lived here on and off ..... when heart #103 found me!!! So this is my good deed: I was already making and giving hearts away to whomever would ask for one!!! It all started in the Ashram I was staying at in Kerala, when the Indian Sage Amritananda Mayi looked into my empty coconut beggar's bowl and deep into my eyes and thus I understood that it was time to stop my vagabond meditative wonderings and start giving something back IMMEDIATEDLY. I had nothing but my few favorite clothes and so I just begun cutting them apart and making little hearts. I stuffed them with flowers from Amma after her Pada Pujas- which is the washing of the Guru's feet in rose water and honey and ghee and flower petals of all kinds! This is the poem that accompanied each heart I gave away... and this is the real gift and difference we can make in our lives in this world: AN EMPTY BOWL -What can a drop of water give the sea? I have no proper offering to give, I only carry my beggar's coconut bowl. -Yet Amma in all compassion and understanding stopped and held my empty bowl between her hand and mine. -And she looked deep into the empty bowl and deep into my eyes with those mesmerizing eyes that see eternity- With it's infinite and abundant possibilities! -Yet all I could see was the empty bowl and the inadequacy of my offering. -Thus I sat & cried alone feeling as empty as my bowl... -Until a voice full of wisdom said: "My child, Why do you cry? Can't you see the whole universe within this bowl?" -I sat and cried some more & felt my tears fall into the empty bowl, -No longer sad but overwhelmed by the abundance of life! -I cried until I laughed within my heart feeling full of love. -And oppenned my eyes to find the empty bowl overflowing with hearts -That had been made with the silent tears of understanding: How blessed we are to be Eternal and be a drop of Water in the Sea! By Devani from Mexico and USA *Heart #103 is ready to go 'round the world and make a difference. It will be given to the person that sits next to me on one of my flights as I make my way back home to the USA tonight!!! Date: 2009-05-28
I make a difference to myself by... finally going home to the USA after 15 years of being on the open road!!! I followed the great poem: "Leave thy home o youth and search out alien shores, A greater range of life is there ordained for Thee!" Yet knowing when it is time to go back home has been my greatest gift to myself!!! Date: 2009-05-28
I make a difference to others by... giving a little heart to whomever asks for one because love can never be denied!!! Date: 2009-05-28
I make a difference to the planet by... eating rawa s much as possible!!! Date: 2009-05-28