You Are Loved
A few years back I was ending a visit with my daughter and her wife in Colorado. It was a great visit and like most often than not, my flight was cancelled and rescheduled later in the week. This meant my girls were back at work. Both made offers to take the day off to drive me to the airport but with Uber available, I saw no reason for them to juggle their work schedules. I ordered an Uber for the next day to pick me up in the morning and take the hour drive to the airport.
The car arrived on time. As I wheeled my suitcase down the driveway, I was surprised the driver wasn’t getting out to help me. He just sat there. The trunk opened up and it was apparent I was going to lift my suitcare myself into his car. “Chivarly is dead,” I muttered to myself as I lifted the suitcase into the back of the car.
I walked up to the front seat and noticed the books and a lunch tote he was not willing to move as he pointed to the back seat. I was a little surprised but got into the back seat. He welcomed me with a thick accent. His accent, dark hair, eyes, and mocha skin indicated he was not from the United States. I got telemarketing calls from guys like this.
“So I know my accents and I’m guessing you are not from Jersey,” I joked with him. He shot me a look in the review mirror and answered flatly, “No. I’m from India.”
“That is someplace I have always wanted to go to,” I answered.
He nodded his head but made no other reply. We traveled in silence.
As we travelled in silence I began to take in the interior of the car and I noticed on the dashboard he had a statue of the Hindu Goddess Kali. This blue skin goddess represents many aspects of the feminine experience including creation, destruction, and protection.
“The Goddess Kali is Hindu. Are you Hindu?” I asked
He looked up in the rearview mirror, studied me for a second and simply stated, “Yes.”
“Would you mind sharing with me your religion?” I asked.
In the rearview mirror our eyes locked and then suddenly, his face lights up and he eagerly shares with me the following:
“My god creates everything in this world and my god creates with love all things in this world. Because my god created me, he created me because he loves me. He created everything in the world because he loves everything in the world. My god created you because he loves you. And since my god loves you, I love you. My god creates out of love and because he loves his creations, to honor him, we must love all of his creations. All of them.” He continued, “I can’t hate you because if I hate you, then I hate my god. And I won’t hate you, I love you because my god loves you. It’s really very simple.”
For the next 45 minutes I was mesmerized by this talk, He never once spoke of sin, not being worthy, or trying to convert me. He shared a simple but strong message of love yourself and love one another. This message was beautifully spoken and shared. The drive was suddenly over. I thanked him, he blessed me, and I blessed him back. I will never forget his message and have shared it so many times: love yourself and love one another. Nothing more and nothing less.
