The Bracelet

A house is worth $200,000. A car, $25,000.

A person? Around $1,000,000 according to current death settlements.

And a pack of gum or a gallon of milk we can nail to the penny.

But what about those times, or events, which involve a gift of some kind from one person to another? Someone says to a friend, ‘I’d like you to have this book.’

It is given, the expected amount of gratitude is exchanged and it is over.

A book exchanged for gratitude. Commonplace.

All giving is thought to be from someone that has an over abundance to someone that has a deficiency. On the ‘giving spectrum’ it is easy to recall lavish gifts like houses and cars being bestowed on someone that is less economically fortunate.

At the other end of the spectrum we approach folks that have almost nothing, and the giving there at that end approaches zero.

But, there are exceptions.

Anastasia, a Russian girl, net worth $0, living in Guatemala working in a warehouse to assist tourists ready to shop, who happened to disembark their cruise ship nearby, is a beautiful exception.

Behind a make-shift counter she makes change for a customer. Right before the customer turns to leave she takes his hand and without saying a word places the only thing she owns around his wrist, a braided piece of yarn. Stooping down behind the counter she carefully ties the three strands together. Standing, she mutters something that sounds like ‘love bracelet’. The customer, thinking that the bracelet was a ticket as such that was something that had to be shown to board a little boat, thanks her, gives her a hug, and walks away. But while walking he remembers the sticker that was stuck to his shirt for identification to board the boat. Quizzically, he boards the boat and enjoys the afternoon festivities.

It wasn’t until that evening that the bracelet was noticed again. The memories of its birth returned. A gift of literally no value, given by a disenfranchised Russian girl to a relatively affluent person from another country, in a spirit of – what?

What kind of spirit is that, for this lovely girl to have one thing to her name and for some reason deem it more important to give it away rather than keep it?

Needless to say, bracelets given in this way become fixtures to the recipient’s wrist.

There is a magic as to how they were given, why they were given, when they were given and to whom they were given. The whole experience becomes one of Magic as we realize they are not gifts at all, they are Spirits, sent to individuals for their own edification.

The recipient in this case was me, a person heretofore isolated from Love and its ramifications. Thinking back, I wondered what was in the girl’s mind when the bracelet was imparted, and what was in mine?

If I had to guess now, I’d say in her mind, nothing had changed. This is who she is. This Spirit, this Love – is all she knows. And she doesn’t even know it, she IS it.

In my mind was incredulity. Why would someone strap me with a worthless piece of yarn? More recently I’d have thoughts about whether I’d prefer receiving the bracelet or a new car.

Never before has the answer been more clear in my mind.

Strange things happen to our priorities when we become the recipient of selfless acts of Purity.

Strange things happen to our priorities when something of no value, ascends to the Infinite.

And, what kind of a Spirit was that?

It is not a Spirit that can be attained, reached up to or even desired.

That SPIRIT just is.

It is what is there when everything else has departed.

It is all of us – less the contamination.

Anastasia gave nothing away. There was nothing to GIVE!

Anastasia is an enabler. She enables folks to loosen their crusty shell and break off pieces of armor, the very armor that precludes purity from even being noticed.

She enables others to peek around the known and perhaps for the first time come in contact with motiveless sanctity.

Anastasia has no agenda, no quotas, nothing to prove.

Anastasia is the Infinite.

So pure, that even just the memory of her, is all that is needed for a Perfect life.