(Image courtesy of Pixabay)

When cards come back from the schools and civic organizations, it is a true joy to read the heartfelt messages that children and students write. When we send cards to be decorated in the Bring Smiles to Seniors program, one of the things that I often get asked by instructors is what the instructor should tell the individual to write. My answer is always the same. I tell them to let them use their imagination and write whatever they want. Almost every time the message is exactly what it should be.

We are born into this world with an innocence that allows us to be who we are. When properly allowed to develop into the individual we are meant to be, we can turn into some pretty amazing people. We aren’t born with hate and prejudice. It is something that we unfortunately learn as we grow along life’s path. It isn’t innate, it is taught and absorbed from those around us. We don’t immediately know to exclude compassion for people who aren’t like us, we pick that up along the way. We don’t create a slate of discontent, we learn it.

When children and students are allowed to be who they are and show the compassion that is within them, what results is truly magical. They don’t have to dig far to find love for a fellow human being, as they haven’t fully experienced the divided world that we live in that shapes how they feel about those around them. Granted, schools are not safe havens that are utopian worlds, they have their issues. But what happens when students go home at night and are influenced by those they interact with, is often the catalyst for what eventually finds its way back into the school.

When we allow children to be who they are without judgement, coercion and pressure, we allow them to follow the life path that was meant for them. When we avoid trying to make our life theirs, often to realize some unfilled desire within ourselves, it is only then that we give them the best chance to be the true self that they were born to be.

One only has to read the cards that these children and students write to see that compassion is alive and well. We should nurture and support that compassion and help these future generations help heal the divided world that we all have to live in and face each and every day. That is why Connecting the Circle of Life is at the core of our mission in the Bring Smiles to Seniors program.