At this week's virtual Santa Clara Awakin Circle, as we were exploring our time with the Emptiness Cafe, our friend Swaroop shared this moving story of his time with his daughter at a park:

One day my daughter, who was about three years old then, and I were sitting in a park and saw a large group of ducks just walking by.

One of the ducks was limping and my daughter was staring at this duck very curiously. After a couple of minutes, she asked what happened to the duck. I said maybe it got injured during paddling or something happened to it, but it is doing fine as it is still able to walk with one leg and jump, eat food and fly.

To this, she said, "Okay," and continued to stare at the duck limping.

Then, she comes back asking, "Why are the other ducks are not helping him?"

"Yes, you are right, that's a good question," I said.

At that point, I thought the conversation was over, but she is still looking at the duck limping.

Then, she says, "I want to give my feet to the duck."

I was like, "Wowww."

That was a moment when I just felt like I was melting away, and I wondered, "Where did her kindness come from?" Certainly not from me. :)

So yes, I really don't know from where we learn kindness, but maybe that feeling of "WE" is always there in our minds, especially in kids.

As we continued into the conversation, I asked, "If you give away your feet, what are you going to do?"

She comes back saying, "We'll order another pair of feet from Amazon." :)