I sat with 10 year old Roberta and we fumbled our way through conversation. She’s full of life and fire. One of those people that’s just unapologetically herself, and you wonder if one day you can be like that too.
Unapologetically happy.
She likes to talk, and she talks fast. I can barely understand Spanish and her excitement to be my friend made it hard to keep up with her words. I smiled politely and giggled with her at jokes I didn’t understand.
We prayed together and she held my hands in hers. As I prayed, she rubbed my fingers as if to say ‘I may not understand your words, but I understand your heart.’
And her small gesture makes my heart feel more whole.
Brenarda lives in the quaint little house near the church. Her front porch is filled with every type of greenery, and my soul feels soothed. She offers to do our laundry, and for the first time in 8 months our clothes see a dryer.
They’ll be done en la mañana, in the morning she says.
When the sun rises, she carries our full load of laundry in her hands, neatly folded with care. And her small gesture makes my heart feel more whole.
And her small gesture makes my heart feel more whole.
I fumble my way through Spanish words with the older man selling juice on the corner. We smile and laugh and misunderstand each other. He fills up a large cup of freshly squeezed orange juice and won’t accept my money. Kindness goes a long way and always comes back to you.
And his small gesture makes my heart feel more whole.
But these gestures really aren’t small at all.
You see, it’s in these moments, the smallest of ones, that my heart feels the deepest. The moments when another human being fully sees you, fully loves you.
When you can’t buy their generosity because the gift of genuine love is so incredibly rich.
Most people barely see these moments. They feel the touch of a hand, they see the folded laundry, they take the free juice, but they don’t recognize the love hiding within it all.
These are the moments I live for. When there’s an undeniable connection of understanding.
Those moments when you don’t need words.
Because a gesture says so much more.
When I see these moments, when I truly see them, that is when, well that is when my heart feels more whole.
