The magic of a kind gesture!

I met a taxi driver in New Orleans, about a year ago, who really touched my heart. My husband and I traveled there for our third anniversary. I had never been to New Orleans and so my first introduction was post-Katrina. I fell in love with the city, but what really made me love NO is the resilliancy of so many people who have returned to a devastated city, and hit the ground running to see the rebuilding and rejuvination of their beloved home. We went to Preservation Hall and the music reached down deep in my soul. I was tapping and clapping and dancing in place and when the singer of the band that night came through the audience, he grabbed my hand and pulled me along with him and then had others join in with me till we were doing a little snake dance in and out of the crowd. Magic! We had breakfast at Brennan's and for a foodie like me, the Banana's Foster nearly had me clutching the table and refusing to leave until I had tasted everything on the menu. My husband saved the day though, and bought me the cookbook instead! Magic!
And taking the bus tour of the 9th Ward and seeing first hand how far reaching the devastation hit, and the empty slabs standing silent in the grassy weeds, or the still standing washed out houses with the markings of the searchers still stark and visible on paint peeled homes, made us all pause in solemnity. Then turning down muscians row and seeing the new homes built by Habitat for Humanity, their vibrant colors full of life, hope and promise and then the area with the housing being built by Brad Pitt, all "green" and giving ownership through participation in the build on the part of the new owners, gave a sense to the tenacity of a city built with soul, music, food and incredible life full of HOPE! Magic!

We spent our three days enjoying it all, wandering the streets, stopping here and there and celebrating our fortune in finding each other, as well as making the decision to always celebrate our anniversary in NO. But the culminating moment came when we were picked up by a taxi at our hotel to head to the airport. We entered his van, and as we had done with everyone we met, we asked him how he had weathered Katrina. He shared with us how his family lost everything, but NO had been their home for fifteen years, since he moved to the states from Egypt, and they had to come back because it is home. I noticed a hand symbol hanging from his rear view mirror. I asked him about it, and told him I collect hand art so I'm always curious in the meaning of different symbols that I encounter. I had recently seen an "eye" on a necklace that originated in Turkey, and the eye is to ward off evil, I had been told, and this double thumbed hand had an eye, much similar, in the middle of the palm. My taxi driver said the eye symbol was stolen from the Egyptians, that the Turkish stole all ideas from them, (and he laughed heartily) and then told me that the eye within the palm of the hand symbolized the powers of healing, joy, life, and is hung to ward off evil. People use them on entry doors to protect them from the "evil eye." I told him it was beautiful. We chatted a bit more about their life in NO, how it hadn't been easy, but they are happy and all doing well, and that's what matters. We then pulled up to the curb. As we were getting out of the car, he quickly came around and handed me the hand from his car. He said he wanted me to have it and that he had several at home and would acquire more when he returned to Egypt. I was quite overwhelmed that a stranger would do something so unexpected and so I hugged him and thanked him. Magic!

This morning I sat down at my desk and glanced over at the hand. It hangs from my desk lamp as a reminder of a gesture of kindness from a stranger, and though just a trinket of little monetary value, it is a symbol of people who under the very worst of circumstances have survived and thrived, but most importantly are living happy! I will never forget his cheerfulness and kindness. Each of us has burdens we bear and struggles we face, but are we looking for all we have to be grateful for and celebrating the great things instead of bemoaning the bad? Take time to write in your journal about all you have to be grateful for and celebrate those little gestures of kindness offered by others, but most importantly, celebrate the gestures of kindness you can offer others. I puzzled over why he might have shared this hand with me, and I think possibly it might have been I touched him as well by caring enough to simply ask about how he had survived. We all have the power to reach out to others. Touch someone's life today!