February 2023
Hot Buttered Toast
Listen to the audio version by Dorothy
As I commenced writing ideas for this month's newsletter, it was February 14, 2023, Valentine's Day. My intention was to weave something together in keeping with the hearts and flowers displayed in stores. Instead, having just enjoyed some hot buttered toast, my thoughts drifted to a heartfelt story I recalled reading from one of my Friendship Book Annuals on that comfort food. A search located it at May 12, 2021, and it goes like this:
"He had been given half a loaf of bread. 'If I had some electricity, I could make toast', he said. The man next to him said: "I have electricity but don't have bread ... if you want to come to mine ...". There was a moment of consideration and mutual agreement. Then the woman sitting in the next seat turned and said, "I have butter".
So these three, who individually had very little, as a team achieved hot buttered toast!
If we expand the message of this story personally, surely it is a reminder that by sharing our skills and interests with those of others we can benefit so many more, proving the truth of an acronym for "team": "together each achieves more". Should our inner voice question whether what we have to offer has value, know that the world needs exactly what we each have to offer, and that what is within us is far, far greater than any outer doubt or hesitation.
Sir Isaac Newton once said that if two angels were sent down from heaven, one to conduct an empire and the other to sweep the streets, they would feel no inclination to change employment, for they would know that each moment holds an opportunity to bring light and joy.
And so it is with what we each have to offer. Maybe it is music, or teaching, or listening. Perhaps it is exchanging a smile with a passerby while out walking, or a pleasant comment while in the grocery line-up. Whatever you offer may well have brought light, joy, and brightened another's day - as well as your own! It may be a brief encounter and although you may never see that person again, for that moment in time that person became your new best friend. How did it happen? One of you spoke first and from there the conversation flowed. That is how some of my most enlightening interactions happened.
Enjoy this special month of February that heralds the return of spring, which I always feel is the season of hope, and do pause in your day to appreciate the new life of lush green trees and colourful blossoms. Each day is the beginning of something miraculous, one that has never been lived before, and is full of promise.
Until next time, please take good care of yourself. Always, I thank you for sharing my journey. Namasté.
Dorothy B.
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Rev. Dorothy Blandford, Ph.D
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