13 pm in the afternoon. Saturday, typically ordinary day, sunny skies. AnhangabaĂş Station, red line of the SĂŁo Paulo subway. Together with a friend, she had just left a course that we were taking on the same day and I had suggested that we go look for a place to have lunch in downtown SĂŁo Paulo. I confess here that we had to walk a little bit to find a nice place that was worth the walk, and that after so much walking around downtown SĂŁo Paulo, we finally had lunch, and when we left the place and returned to where they were teaching the course, we found a boy who lives on the street (quite common in the daily life of any human being and in several places in SĂŁo Paulo, but that Saturday, around 14 pm, I was able to learn something new and put into practice all the teaching about doing good without looking at who ).
I remember it clearly and as if it were now. At that moment, I looked at the boy (and at my friend, who was wanting to leave, hurrying and with the fear of being robbed), I stood still for a few seconds, got up the courage, looked into the boy's eyes and asked him if he was hungry and if he would like us to buy something close to the place where we had just had lunch (very cliché and I believe that any other human being would do the same as me) – but, to my surprise and initial amazement, the same boy returned telling me no, he didn't want anything. He just wanted a hug. Hug, act of embracing.
This episode made me reflect on how much we are conditioned to go unnoticed and forget about the existence of some people in our daily lives (for multiple reasons and some very obvious ones, by the way) and how much we don't value the simplicity that life offers us, since we get stuck in our own bubble for many reasons and limiting beliefs, limiting our ability to go beyond what is visible to us. In such a colossal, conflicting and inflexible world, we survive more talking than listening to the next – and after all, who is the next one? (If we don't even value our own existence, who will say that of others?). In my reflective thinking and on the same day, I could see how we live blind and immersed in "our" unnecessary pain, "our" thoughts that cause a loss of energy, health and time - and do not allow us some opportunities to look beyond that. that is visible to us.
I didn’t hesitate and as soon as I got home, I made a point of looking up the meaning of the word hug in our wise and dear friend’s dictionary and found the following: “Embracing is the act of “enveloping (something or someone) with your arms, keeping it close to the chest; to gird with the arms; give each other hugs.” And also of “disposing oneself around; encircle, encircle, encircle.” – right, but why did I look for the meaning of hug, if I know what it means to hug someone? (remembering that knowing what it means is different from putting it into practice in daily life). I've always believed that hugging someone says much more about the act of hugging itself (we not only give a better part of ourselves, but we also receive a better part of the other) and I can say that this is also knowing how to listen to the other. So, I ask: when was the last time we got involved with someone (in the midst of the troubled life we ​​live)? When was the last time we made ourselves available to someone? Hug, who? To hug? So it is.
And before anyone asks me if I hugged or not, I confess that I was ecstatic with the boy who lives on the street, and before I dared to question again, I remember him looking deep into my eyes and stressing that he just wanted a hug – act of to hug. Without further ado, I looked at my friend, nodded my head and crouched down very close to the boy and we hugged each other – and finally I could understand and put into practice in my life that wise old saying: “ do good without looking at whom”, since I had the unique opportunity to enter an opposite universe, but totally similar to mine. I took the opportunity, I tapped the young man on the shoulder and asked him if he was okay and I remember him returning saying yes, he was fine and he had chosen this path after many disappointments in life. I blinked, wished him good luck in life and thanked him for the opportunity to once again learn and put into practice that old and wise saying: “doing good without looking at whom.”
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- Your grass is green, yeah
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I end by wishing that you on the other side feel embraced by me – and that like me – you can also have the opportunity to calmly and soulfully embrace the next person who comes your way and sees beyond what is visible. in your eyes.
