Last week, I was on the way home to celebrate one of my very best friend's wedding weekend when I got an email from my landlord that will forever alter the way that I engage in intentional conversations with people that I might usually not.
I was on FaceTime with my friend and was concentrated on only the road and my conversation with my friend.
A heard a ding on my phone, the kind that I knew rang when I got an email. I scanned over the notification at the top of my phone screen and the first word that caught my eye was, "suicide."
I furiously read over the email and began to realize that the reason that I was receiving this email was that the tenant next to my apartment had attempted to commit suicide earlier that afternoon and our landlord was informing me of this.
My heart shattered, and I mean SHATTERED... entirely fell onto my car floorboard amidst the conversation I was having with my friend.
My neighbor was someone that I saw every morning on my way to class, and someone that I would quite frequently run into either walking to my car or on the way to a friends house.
I always engaged in conversation with him, but after receiving that email, I began to pick my brain and wonder if I had ever participated in real kindness with him.
Had I shared a little piece of Heaven with him everytime we spoke? Did I talk intentionally to him, and not just because I felt awkward in passing?
While I believed that I was always "nice" to him in passing, I failed to engage in kindness towards him actively.
Luckily I was gone throughout the weekend following but came back to his apartment is empty, and my heart shattered all over again. The apartment felt dark, empty, and reeked of loneliness.
However, throughout this, I actively began to realize that no matter how close we are or are not to someone, we must always strive to bring Heaven down to Earth. What I saw of my neighbor every early morning was nothing but a fraction of himself and what demons he faced on the inside.
So, from now on, I have promised myself to always engage in kindness with the people I find myself passing every so often. Not just my close friends and family, but also those who I might find it hard to strike up a conversation with at times.
After all, when we actively love and show kindness and mercy towards each other, we subconsciously bring a little piece of Heaven to Earth.
