Being spontaneous

The other day at the elementary school library where I work, a note appeared on my desk, written by a six-year-old girl. It read: Dear Mrs. Lafia, thanks for being a great helper.

The note was written in marker, and below the sentence was an illustration showing one big person and one little person, which I assumed was the girl and me.

Later that day, when the girl’s mother arrived at the library to volunteer to help hang some artwork, I asked her about the note. “Oh, she did that totally on her own at home,” the woman said. And what I really appreciated was that the mother hadn’t tried to make the note look conventionally right, or polish it up in any way. She allowed her daughter to be spontaneous and to respond from the heart.

I was completely amazed by the note. I recalled that the girl had been looking for a certain book week after week, but it had been checked out. When it finally was returned, I remembered that this person had been looking for it, and so I had gone to her classroom to gave it to her. The note was her spontaneous expression of gratitude.

I started to think about the importance of spontaneity within ourselves. When we have an instinct or impulse to respond in a certain way, in a generous way, in a way that feels good for ourselves and for others. We hear about the spontaneous acts of kindness, and can we find them in our lives!

Are we allowing ourselves to be spontaneous or are we holding back most of the time?  I mean spontaneous with who we are, with the gift of sharing, the gift of love?