Everybody is triggered with emotions over different experiences. This video strikes a heart-wrenching chord with me every time I watch it. It is a story about a father’s giving and the important lesson of kindness and gratitude he teaches his son. I have seen it many times now and tear up every single time (warning: watching this in your office cubicle – like I did – may cause strange looks from colleagues if your eyes become puffy and red).
The father lived selflessly without personal motive and was focused on giving, which gave him so much joy – and yet the son was oblivious to that aspect of him and judgmental through his young eyes as a boy. Maybe that was part of what got me so emotional – there was something at the beginning that reminded me how I never thought my mom was very smart growing up…luckily, I figured out I was very misguided in that belief and have been able to appreciate her so much now! She is very much like the father, always quick to help others and has such a beautiful appreciation and gratitude for everything. Similarly, the son discovered the real truth as a man and he finally woke up. In choosing to become the clown, the son honored his father and new sense of himself.
Soon after I watched this video for the first time, I encountered a real world situation that was similar to the scene where the father in the video was handing out flyers. This man on the street was handing out pamphlets and the brochures were an introduction to the Falun Dafa, a practice based on Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance. Unsure of the context of “forbearance” in this reference, I looked it up:
Forbearance (ren) is not cowardice, much less is it resigning oneself to adversity. Dafa disciples’ Forbearance is noble; is the manifestation of beings’ magnificent, indestructible, and diamond-like solidity; is tolerance for the purpose of upholding the truth; and is mercy toward and salvation of beings who still have human nature and righteous thoughts.
Tolerance for the purpose of upholding the truth. We all have a responsibility to ourselves to uphold the truth – we do this when we wake up and show up each moment with gratitude. This is so much easier said than done, and this video kicks me into overdrive with that message each time I watch it…I hope you will share a little kindness and gratitude with this story in mind.
~ Health, Happiness and Prosperity ~