Inspired by a random act of kindness from a stranger.

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The world is vast…

 mountains that scrape the sky,

 oceans that hum their ancient hymns…

 yet somehow small enough

 for a stranger’s smile

 to feel like home.

Travel, and the world opens.

 See it.

 Hear it.

 Let the wind of another land

 whisper its stories into your bones.

We are one…

 beyond color, beyond race,

 beyond the borders we drew

 before we knew better.

A mother is a mother

 in every language.

 A father is a father

 wherever the sun rises.

 Brothers and sisters,

 not by blood,

 but by breath.

Taste the delicacies of another’s table,

 and you taste their childhood.

 You taste their laughter.

 You taste their hope.

Listen,

 really listen…

 to the music of someone else’s life.

 It softens you.

 It widens you.

 It reminds you

 that love is the greatest gift

 we ever learned to give.

Memories . . . 

 we make them like footprints in wet sand,

 knowing the tide will come,

 yet writing them anyway

 because living is worth remembering.

 And remembering

 is another way of living.

Life is precious,

 a fragile, glowing ember

 cupped in our hands.

 Treasure it

 today,

 now,

 and tomorrow.

Walk gently.

 Walk boldly.

 Walk together.

The world is big,

 but we are close.

 And we are one.