As I sit to write the Scribe for April my thoughts turn to an email I received a few weeks ago and I smile. A smile that rises up from deep within my heart and connects me to the joyous feeling I had after reading the words. A gorgeous angel had sent me an email to thank me for an article I had written about my sister. What this angel did not know was that I had been ’sitting in some stuff’ and I wasn’t feeling the greatest at all. I was sitting in doubt and questioning my path and feeling pretty low.

On the day I received the email, I had sat down, on autopilot, at the computer to check some emails and I was stopped in my tracks. Someone had connected to what I had written and had taken a moment out of their life to write to me and let me know what they felt. I sat at the pc with tears streaming down my face and immediately, how I was feeling, only seconds before had shifted, I felt better. My tears were happy, joyous tears for being able to contribute to another persons life and that made me feel so much better than thinking I wasn’t helping anyone at all.

Why do I share this story you may ask???

Well, apart from it being a lovely story to share and I get an opportunity to send some more blessings to the angel on my path, I share it to bring awareness around being kind.

Sometimes a simple act of kindness has all sorts of ripple effects that you may struggle to appreciate where the ripple began. In this instance I knew where the ripple had begun and so I wanted to bring some awareness around how such a small, seemingly insignificant act, can have a very large outcome.

In life, this is called the ‘Butterfly Effect’. Yes, it has been noticed that one tiny, beautiful butterfly flapping its wings can have a major affect on weather patterns around the world. From a tiny little act of flapping a tornado, a thousand miles away from the tiny little butterfly, can be formed or moved onto another part of the world.

Pretty amazing huh!!!

So, getting back to my story – I can vouch for how the butterfly effect affected me on that particular day and how, this one small act of kindness, has helped change so many little things, for me, since.

I find that because the internet, the web, is so huge and that there is so much information on it at our disposal that I often forget that there is a person behind the words that I read on my screen. I forget that there has been a person sitting, much like me now, at their pc typing words to share that article, that information with us. Someone has provided it to us to read, share, learn, comment on, disagree with and enjoy. Someone has given of them self so we may be wealthier as a result.

Mostly, I just read, receive and move on. I don’t take a moment to stop and send an email or send them blessings for their words. I just move on. I am far too busy to write to everyone I connect with….right??? Nope, that isn’t it at all, I just haven’t thought about it. I just haven’t connected that there are people, real people, real people like you and me out there writing and putting their stuff up so we may read. I haven’t connected cos I have just taken it for granted that it is there – it is always there.

But now I have some more awareness because of a beautiful angel on my path. I have some awareness that says to me ‘Hey, remember how wonderful you felt when you read that email?’ and I go…’Yeah, I do’. And it says, ‘well, you can give someone else that gift if you choose to’.

And so, from now on, I choose to give that gift as often as I can.

Imagine a ripple effect of kindness going out across the world. Imagine people thanking people. Imagine people sending complete strangers emails that say “Good job, thank you!’. Imagine a world where we all took a moment to really say thank you. A world where we reply to emails that we have connected to. Where we send an email to thank someone for their website. We thank the teacher that teaches our children. We thank the boss for having a job and an income to bring home. We thank our family for being our family. We thank our friends for their love and support. We thank the banks for providing us loans so we get the experience of living in beautiful homes. We thank the atm machines for dispensing cash when we need it. We thank the checkout operator who packs our groceries in our bag so we may eat. We thank the phone companies for the ability we have to connect with others. We thank our kids for being our kids. We thank our animals for loving us and for adding so much joy to our lives.

Imagine. Just imagine.

We truly have so much to be thankful for. No matter how hard your journey might be right now, you have something to be thankful for – even if its just the breath that keeps you alive. I know sometimes the journey can be hard and you feel that you are travelling all uphill, but…give thanks. Give thanks often and from your heart. Just say thank you and let the butterfly flap its wings and carry that beautiful energy out into the world for everyone to breathe in. Just say thank you.

I thank you.

Much love, many blessings. Julianne xxx

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