We live by the belief that the best way to learn about the world is to see it. In a period where social media and instant news allows us to hear all the bad, scary, negative things in the world in an instant, it’s easy to believe that the world is a terrible, frightening place.
One of the main reasons we are so intent on taking the children travelling is so that they will realise that it’s not.
The image we are fed through the media is not real life.
Kindness. Love. Warmth. It is found everywhere. Generally, no matter who they are or where they are, people just want to live peacefully, happily and without fear.
And every time we travel we find people sharing the smallest acts that create the biggest impact in teaching our children the valuable lesson that no matter what they might hear about a place, a race, a country or a culture, the best way to know what someone or somewhere is really like is to experience it for yourself.
As our family walked through the beautiful town of Lecce, a lady stopped and asked us whether all the children were ours. We replied in our very limited Italian but being stopped is a regular occurrence in Italy, so we have the sentences we need to communicate this popular but limited conversation quite well polished.
We parted ways and came by her again as we continued our journey, when she beckoned for us to follow her to a shop nearby. She handed me a piece of paper and asked me to write our name. Then she sat at her sewing machine and got to work before handing her simple gift to us with her love and best wishes…
Kindness.
It’s everywhere.
Great read! You can never go wrong with kindness. I agree with you that everyone only wants to live peacefully and happily.