Small Hands Rags Archive Page
Wednesday, August 15, 2007

My friend Chris, who has been my pilates instructor for over a year had a wonderful story to tell me just this morning. While I winced through my workout paying dearly for the 10 days of banquet style eating on my vacation, he shared with me his tale.
As usual he was doing charity work in his spare time (he does this all time) at a church in downtown Los Angeles. He was wearing one of our men's Small Hands 'Practice Compassion' t-shirts. While serving food he was asked by a teenage boy in line, "what does compassion mean?" Chris proceeded to get out of the serving line, sat down with the young man and in his words told him what compassion meant to him. I never did ask Chris what he told him and there's a reason; he said quickly, "so I just gave him my shirt and I need another one in navy please- small." I was stunned, he literally just gave the boy the shirt off his back. He remembered the young man's name, Russ, and said he was there with his family and then Chris went on to talk about something else entirely. We do this- I talk during the stretches and he talks while I try to breath during the stomach lashings. They're not called lashings I call them lashings. It's a system we have that works.

That story is typical of my friend Chris. He has all the compassion in the world and it's just part of who he is like drinking a glass of water, he doesn't think about it. He has an extremely busy life working, going to school, spending time with his son. His 'free time' is filled organizing charity events and raising money for the national breast cancer foundation and cancer kids. I don't know when he sleeps. He has helped me as well get our line out into the world and then tells me the different responses he gets. He loves wearing 'Manifest Peace' when he does his banking for some reason. People strike up conversations with him in the bank frequently. "And who wants to go to the bank anyways?" he says. "So it's just fun for me to wear it there."

My husband and I just returned home from a much needed vacation (okay, we all need vacations!) He wore a Small Hands shirt nearly everyday. I wanted to wear some new summer shirts I had brought but there was a day that I wore my brown Practice Compassion tee and subtle reactions began coming to me. Smiles. This soft energy coming from people- it was cool. Everyone seemed happy and at ease. At first I had forgotten that I had it on, and was simply enjoying it all. Maybe it was just that day and the people I encountered, but I know that when I put on my 'We are all extraordinary' tee people are very vocal in a great, positive way. So to me people are always wonderful but a positive message will just bring that to the surface sometimes. This of course is the entire theory behind our line. I put those summer shirts away quickly and found another Small Hands tee to wear. I like the reactions and I love how they feel. This is what drives me to design more images/messages, something new to wear with perhaps a new style shirt!

Before I leave I must finish the end of Chris' tale at the church. He told me that the young man left that evening with his family of 6 proudly wearing his shirt. He gave Chris a hug before leaving. Apparently the shirt fit fine. "He's tall, a big boy but it fits," and again Chris reminded me that he needed to purchase another one.

Love, Love, Love.

Labels:



by: Small Hands Rags 3 Comments
Previous Posts
Archives

Home