Sacred Space

Sacred Spaces are all around us. We can heal others with just a kind word or a smile. Who knew that a trip to Wal-Mart would bring healing to two strangers shopping there. It was an ordinary miracle.

Here is the story and how it unfolded..

I started that morning saying to myself, "Beloved Creator, how may I serve today? I ask for sacred service each and every day." I was at the front of the store with my favorite socks and low sodium V-8 juice(it is delicious) and about to get in the check out line when a young woman walks up pushing a elderly woman in a wheelchair. They only had a few things so I asked them if they would like to go ahead of me and the woman seemed unusually grateful. I was in no hurry and glad to oblige. The young woman began to tell me about the woman in the wheelchair. It was her mother. She was suffering the effects from a bad drug interaction from medicines prescribed by two different doctors. I listened as she told me her story, how worried she was about her mother and whether she would recover from the drug interaction. I was unusually quiet and finally summoned up my courage to say "Tell your mother to just Choose Life."

The daughter threw her arms around me and gave me a big hug. There I was hugging a total stranger in Wal-Mart. I asked the daughter if I might speak to her mother. She was thrilled with my request. I left my purse and cart and stepped out of line. I had no idea what I would say to her mother but felt I would get the answers I needed to communicate to her. I asked her daughter what her mother's name was and she replied" my mother's name is Virginia." I walked around to the wheelchair. Virginia was slumped to one side. I bent over the chair and said quietly, " Hello Virginia." To my delight, she opened her eyes, sat up straight in the chair and became totally alert. At first she seemed confused so I said" I am Yona. My name means white dove." Virginia gave me this beautiful, huge smile. (I had to contain myself from not crying at this point) . "Virginia, you have the most beautiful smile and I know you will be well very soon. I am so pleased to have met you and your daughter. She loves you very much. I wanted you to know how delighted I was to meet both of you today. It was a real gift.

Virgina kept smiling and even tried to wave goodbye to me. Her daughter hugged me again and wished me happy holidays. Love is contagious. Joy is contagious. The cashier became very excited about witnessing Virginia coming back to life as well as the woman in line behind me. A third woman in another line said, "this is the best time I ever had at Wal-mart."

The simplest gestures of random kindness to a stranger can miraculously heal ourselves and others, especially when we have the ability to see the best in ourselves and others.

Acts of kindness heal. Even in Wal-mart! Look around you and see the ordinary miracles that happen each day. You too can heal with your words or just by your very nature.

Make your sacred space wherever you are.You are magnificent! That is how G-d created you!  I send blessings to everyone who reads this and I ask that this story has the ripple effect and bring blessings to everyone who shares this story with anyone- your friends, family and strangers.  Love and kindness transforms everything for the better.