This Christmas , a bunch of us friends spent a lot of the week spreading our joy and beaming our love out into the world. It was beautiful and i think had all of us feeling amazing.

On Saturday we spent the evening at Dubai Mall being kind. We had planned a bunch of random acts of kindness. We were 11 friends and we’d divided ourselves into 3 smaller groups and each group had a bunch of Christmas cards, candy and chocolates to give out. We also had a list a lot like a scavenger list with kind ideas. Well there is only so much planning you can do with ‘random’ acts. I was apprehensive to everyone’s responses and whether they would feel it and have a good experience serving. I felt the need to try and steer and control how things were going but i was amazed instead by how naturally this seemed to come to everyone. I watched friends who had never done anything like this reach out with such warmth to strangers around them.

It was heart warming. And we had some amazing moments, there was this one security guard wearing a very serious expression even after we gave him a card, and a few minutes later he came up to us and thanked us saying he couldn’t earlier because his boss was around. And we gave a German tourist a card for her daughter back home and she squeezed my arm in gratitude; and then of course all the smiles! =) Another friend reached out with hugs to everyone she talked to and that made it easier for the rest of us to follow. It was a beautifully kind evening.

On Monday we were to sing carols at a community area in Dubai. It ended up becoming a carolling drive. We had our windows down with carols playing and were singing along and handing out cards and candy to the cars around us at traffic signals. And then when we finally got there it was hugs and more hugs. It was incredible. Everyone lights up when hugged and the beautiful part about it is you can’t give one without receiving one =)

On Wednesday we dropped Christmas cards at doorsteps and rang door bells and fled. That was tons of fun! And well by then we were just in that space and the warmth felt like a natural reaction.
There were so many beautiful moments through these days and I’m in deep gratitude for all the wonderful friends who took time off to share their joy with the world. It is an amazing way to connect with people and was an amazing space to meet new people. There is an immediate common ground - the joy of giving. It had me centered in that space for the entire week wishing people everywhere I went =)

Posted by Chandni Sawlani on Dec 28, 2013 | permalink