Bringing a Smile to Stranger’s Faces

This blog has nothing to do with either growing or using jasmine, but I want to share a wonderful experience I had today.

I have a long train commute between work and home, but I don’t find it a waste of time for the hour and fifteen minutes I spend traveling in each direction.  I can always find something to do whether reading, working on a project, sleeping when I feel really tired, or writing this blog for that matter.

This morning, as soon as I got a seat, I started to make a garland from the jasmine I had picked before leaving.   I use it to make an offering for the Ganesh statue at work, out of respect.  After a few minutes, the guy sitting across the aisle leaned over and asked whether the jasmine was real.  I offered him some, but he really just wanted to stick his nose in the bag and take a deep sniff.  “This is very soothing.” he said.  Aside from that, just “Thank you.”  I continued stringing the garland for a few more stops before reading my newspaper.  Shortly after that another passenger sat down next to me.

When the train got to our final destination I got up and took the bag of herbs I had cut for my colleagues.  She, the passenger next to me, commented on how great the basil smelled.  We had a short discussion about basil on the way up the platform and she accepted some jasmine.  She was delighted and kept sniffing the jasmine in her palm.

Both incidents are common to me every time I carry jasmine with me, but what happened next really made my day.

I got on the subway heading for my office.  An elderly couple got on the next stop and sat across from me.  They were probably in theirs seventies.  They were holding hands, chatting and leaning against each other.  What drew my attention was the affection they showed for each other.  It was so pronounced, so radiant.  I couldn’t help but smile and kept observing them,  just short of staring perhaps.  I offered them some jasmine before I got off the subway.  The gentleman accepted them while still holding her hand.  Both smelled them and looked up at me with a big, genuine smiles.

“Thank you very much.  You made our day.” He said.

“No, Sir, you made my day.  You’re such a lovely couple.  Enjoy them and have a wonderful day.”  I walked off the train.

Yes, something about an older couple displaying love and affection that makes me melt.  I still remember that my father cried his heart out when my mother passed away a few years ago.  He was over eighty years old then and he still misses her and talks about her.