When you are compassionate with yourself and others, your world becomes compassionate.You draw to yourself other souls of like frequency and with them you create, through your intentions and your actions and your interactions, a compassionate world.

Gary Zukav, Author
The Seat of the Soul

One ordinary day, in the parking lot of an ordinary apartment building, an extraordinary thing took place. This blog is my way of saying thank you to the extraordinary young man who made it happen. With your help, it is also my way of making a real difference in honor of my friend, Sebastian.

My story begins when the parking garage under my apartment building was acquired by a new company. Sebastian became the new manager. Nothing very spectacular about that. Believe me, managing this parking garage is no easy task. It is one of the worse parking garages I have ever used. Despite this, when I met Sebastian for the first time, I knew there was something special about him. We talked for awhile. When I got ready to leave, I told him he would be very successful because he already had all the qualities that would continue to make him stand out.

According to the terms of my monthly parking agreement, I have to give thirty days notice in order to cancel the contract. I told Sebastian that this might be a problem for me because I planned to go back to Florida as soon as I had medical clearance to travel. I was having what I hoped to be my last medical test on January 31, and it was likely that it would determine if I could go home.

He assured me that it was no problem to waive this rule under the circumstances. That, in itself, was a really nice thing to do. What followed was is nothing less than extraordinary

On January 31, the day of the test, I received the following email:

January 31, 2018

Good Morning,

Just wanted to say hoping for the best for your test today!

Stay Warm!

Regards,

Sebastian

If you bother to count the words in the email it is exactly twenty. It says absolutely nothing profound. In fact, it is actually quite simple. Except for the fact that Sebastian only met me once. Still, he made a note somewhere to remind himself to wish me well. Honestly and unequivocally, he touched me in a way that was more meaningful than anything that has happened to me in a very long time.

This may seem like a no-brainer or insignificant to many. Too often, we become so engrossed in the details of our own lives that we forget about the importance of making a small difference in someone else’s life. Little things really matter. Taking a minute or two to mark a calendar and write twenty words really matters. Being thoughtful, kind, generous, and compassionate really matters. At least they matter to me.

I was so taken aback by this gesture, I was literally at a loss for words. If you know me and how much I talk, this is the most remarkable part of the story. It didn’t seem possible to find words that were special enough to thank Sebastian. After much thought and reflection, I was finally ready to respond. This was my email reply:

Dear Sweet Sebastian,

I am a writer. Yesterday, I was at a loss for words. You touched me in a way that seldom happens because people are just too busy to think about others. As you know, I have some serious health problems. I have four kids and lots of friends. You were the only one who remembered to wish me well. I knew you were special the first time we met. It is not uncommon that special people know other special people the first time they meet. You are one of them. In life, we make choices everyday. We chose to be happy or sad. We chose joy or despair. Most important, we chose to take the time to consciously enrich people’s lives or to ignore them. You chose the former. You have made a huge difference to me on a difficult day. I am very blessed that I have had the privilege to know you.

With warm regards,

Susanna

PS No test results back yet.

The next day, Sebastian sent me another email:

Good morning,

I am overjoyed to know I was able to make a difference for you, even if only a slight one. That is one thing I pride myself on being a manager, and person I suppose. We meet people every day, some nice, some not. How we choose to see life and express ourselves is totally up to us, I choose to try and enrich people if I can, and I am truly glad you were moved by such a simple gesture.

Hoping all the best and please keep me updated on the status if you wish!

Regards,

Sebastian

My first response when I got this email was to find a way to thank him. I considered things like a nice bottle of wine or a gift card. It didn’t seem right to give him a physical gift. I kept thinking of a way to thank him for doing a genuine good deed. Then, it came to me.

I write a blog every week that goes out to thousands of people. The greatest gift I could give Sebastian was to write my next blog about him. And so it is.

In honor of Sebastian, I would like you to consider doing at least one good deed yourself. Better yet, try to do as many good deeds as you can as many times on as many days as you can. I have been doing this for years. It can be as simple as telling a janitor how nice the floor looks that he is buffing or letting the gardener who’s pulling weeds in the blistering heat how much you appreciate his work. If you have a few extra dollars and see an old car with lots of kids in it in the fast food line, give the cashier an extra ten or twenty dollars to help pay for their order.

I am calling this the Sebastian Project. Please comment on this post or email me at susanna@evelynpearl.com so we can keep track. Each one of us will make a difference – one small act of kindness at a time.

I’ll write a future blog to let you know how it goes!