Hearts Of Gold.

06th June, 2019

“Dear Diary
Three years ago, I went to a retreat as an intern. The retreat was for burn survivors and we didn’t get to meet the kids until they arrived at the venue. These were kids who had been through a pretty traumatic ordeal, but when they arrived, they had nothing but smiles on their bright faces. Now when I think about it, that was the best place I’ve ever been to because of all the love those kids showered on our team. I remember being close to tears when it was time to say goodbye because I had learnt more from those kids than they probably learnt from our team.”

Of all the places I’ve been to, this is the one trip that I will always be grateful for. There was so much to learn from these kids. Warmth, humility, acceptance, gratitude, and most of all, love. For the first time in life, I wished that I was bigger, or more specifically, I wished I there was more of me so that I could give all of those kids a tight hug for making it one of the best weekends in my life.

What I loved the most about them was that even though they had been scarred for life at an extremely young age (around 8-15), none of them gave it too much thought. Of course, I understand that there are so many other factors that come into play here, but the fact that they understood that there was so much more to them than their appearances taught me a lesson about my obsession with trying to fix my ‘flaws’ when there wasn’t anything on my face that needed to be fixed.

Three days filled with laughter, learning and love completely changed my perspective about how bad incidents don’t necessarily have to be the end. I cannot even begin to imagine what those kids or their parents must have been through when they accidentally suffered those burns, but I am forever grateful that those kids could make it to the other side; smiles, big hearts and kindness intact.

Sometimes, we stumble upon people who can change the way we see the world. What were the chances that I would ever stumble upon so many at a time?! And at the most unexpected of times, too! I was just back from another camp and I had to leave for this one the very next morning; and honestly, I did not expect to have such a wonderful time during this trip.

But life works in mysterious ways, huh? Guess we have to take a chance to find out. We never know what can make us express how grateful for this life we are. There is so much in this world to be grateful for. We only need to observe closely.

Get your binoculars out!

Cheerio! Xx

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Hey guys! For Day 6, I had to write about being somewhere that I am grateful for. Let me know in the comments below if you have a similar story to share. I would love to hear from you!
Yours truly,
The Shubhster.

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