La Ballade Des Gens Heureux

"And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye." Antoine de Saint-Exupery.

This Sunday, we got together with friends from France with a heart intention to spread some love, joy, goodwill and cheer on the streets of Cannes, home of the Cannes Film Festival and the red carpet capital of the world.

The plan was to meet at 4 pm, prepare some artsy posters with bright messaging, go out on the streets and shower hugs, compliments, smiles and a few hand-crafted gifts to random folks.

As we sat in a circle to heart-storm ideas for the posters and to decide our flow for the evening, I was feeling a low on energy and was concerned how I could find the strength and courage to go out and engage with strangers on possibly one of the most la-di-dah places on earth. A still voice within reminded me of a beautiful quote by St. Francis. "Start by doing what is necessary, then what is possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible".

I decided to put in all my energy at hand into doing small acts with a lot of love. After sitting in shared silence for a few minutes, each of us took on a sheet of paper to create our own unique posters ala "art with a heart". Just this process itself was a very healing experience for many in our group. Slowly, as I started creating my own poster by writing "Sourions" (let us smile together in French) in bold and bright colors, I felt an inner shift into a quiet joy born out of still action.

Audrey happened to casually mention a quote by Thich Naht Hanh which had a strong resonance to my inner feeling, "Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy."

As soon as our posters were ready, we set out with big smiles yet tentative steps as we had no idea how we will be received. However our doubts quickly melted as within a few seconds of starting out, a young group of girls seeing our posters, came up to us to hug us and cheer us on.

As we stood on the side of the super busy promenade right by the famous red carpet of Cannes, we experienced the wide range of human emotions play out in front of us, from folks who would look through us and ignore us, to folks whose faces would light up with delight as they participated in our little jig of kindness.

After a couple of "rejections" by folks who chose to ignore our invite to smile or hug, I experienced a deep compassion arise for all beings who for reasons unknown to us could not partake of our celebrations. Found myself silently chanting "Lokah samastha sukhino bhavantu" (Sanskrit prayer: may all be happy).

And then there were the walking angels among the crowds who stepped forward enthusiastically to receive our love, and then encourage us on our kindness adventures by gifting us their silent blessings.

Just, as we were preparing to wind down, two little girls walked up to us, melted us with their smiles and hugs, posed for a quick photo and then walked away with two posters as if assuring us "Thanks for doing your little bit. We can take it over from here".

As they playfully disappeared into the crowds, I prayed that the seeds of kindness keep finding such fertile soil to thrive in.

Merci. Merci. Merci.