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Xenial #AtoZChallenge @AprilA2Z

My theme for this year’s Blogging from A to Z April Challenge is Cultivating Happiness. Today, X is for Xenial.

X

55 Fiction

I cradle her in my arms.

She stirs and finds me looking down at her.

Her eyes shine with tears of what may have been joy, or gratitude.

“I’m so glad you’re here,” she slurs.

I put my finger on her lips to hush her.

I know exactly how it feels to plead for help.

A Word to the Wise

I cannot do all the good that the world needs. But the world needs all the good that I can do.

Xenial means to be hospitable and giving especially to strangers and people whom you don’t know. Hold the door for strangers. Give someone hand carrying their groceries. Assist a elderly person walking across the street. Carrying out acts of kindness to people you don’t know will strengthen your positive outlook on life. Is there a greater feeling than helping someone who is need?

You can check out my A-Z posts thus far  by clicking  on a highlighted letter!

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

40 Responses

    1. Well said, we all can do with a lot of compassion and empathy! Like they say, there is no exercise better for the heart than reaching down and lifting people up!

    1. I know what you mean. Sometimes it backfires too. Would love to know about this experience of yours 🙂

  1. Being kind and helpful must be our way of life to help this world restore faith in goodness of strangers.
    That a wonderful take on X 🙂

    1. You are spot on. It is said that you have not lived today until you have done something for someone who can never repay you. If each one of us follow this, we would be making our world a better place! Thank you 🙂

    1. True, compassion and empathy towards others not only changes them but changes us too. 🙂

  2. beautiful thought and as always crisply articulated. Xenial is a new word i learnt today and such a beautiful meaning. Thank you, Shilpa and loved that photo quote.

    1. Yeah, the word may be new but we have been practicing it all our life, especially you in your line of work 🙂

  3. Always interesting to see what comes up with “X”. Good choice and the short story illustrates the meaning of “Xenial” so well. I used the noun version, “Xenia”, two years ago. We’re almost done. Can you believe it? 🙂 Cheers!

    1. ‘X’ is pretty challenging, but we all manage to come up with interesting options every year!
      And we are done and dusted with this year’s challenge… woohoo 😀

  4. I learnt a new word today. But more importantly remembered someone after reading your post.
    We were two students caught up in a massive downpour in south mumbai. We were wondering ho to get back to the campus. At the bus stop we tried to open our wallets to see if we had enough money to hire a cab to chembur. A third man going to Chembur joined us and we were relieved that it would not be such an expensive ride after all. When we got down, he paid the taxi driver and refused to take money from us. He said that when we got our jobs and moved on with life, we should make sure that each one of us helps other students and thus repay him over time. THAT WAS XENIAL !!

    1. Aha! God bless that man and may his tribe increase. Hope you got opportunity to pay it forward too 🙂
      Thanks for sharing your experience, Jayanthi 🙂

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