A gentle soul has passed today. I only knew Mr. Hezari as this very gentle man who always smiled at me when he and his wife entered the door for the Baha’i morning devotions. He always greeted me as if I was a long lost friend, very warmly, very naturally and very kindly. Because of this, he made a huge impression on me with these simple gentle acts of kindness. May his soul go to be with God in peace and love.

Mr. Hezari’s passing is a reminder to me that there are good souls everywhere when I choose to open my eyes. With all the things going on in our world today and all the many, many ways we have to tune into the world today, it is easy for me to get swept up into despair, anger, revulsion and even apathy so much so that I forget to remember the good souls that are around me everywhere.

For me, good souls come in all forms and fashions (human and non-human). There is this old man-dog who I “met” for the first time a couple of months ago. He lives in a house across the creek from our home. The people that live in his house have all kinds of dogs and this particular special dog I hadn’t seen before in the 14 years that I’ve been walking our “hood”. I’m not sure how old this dog is, but judging from the grey in his muzzle, I’d say at least 9 or 10. He’s a fairly big guy too who looks to be part Doberman (facial structure and stubby tail) and part some kind of dog that has a longer coat than a Dobie. He’s also got some kind of neurological disorder going on because he kind of prances when he walks like he can’t feel or tell where his paws are touching and he walks a little bit sideways. In spite of these things, both my Black Lab and Australian Shepherd are very polite to him when he comes up to greet me. He always bellows a hello with a bark and then prances sideways up his long driveway from the garage to greet me. He always acknowledges my dogs first, letting his stubby tail move back and forth and then comes right up to me to be greeted. I just love this dog and I know absolutely nothing about him except he exudes love to me. Every single time he comes up to greet me I am overwhelmed with pure love from him. I have to find out his story and least of all his name. I told my mom that he reminded me of my great grandfather who was quite a distinguished gentleman.

And good souls, of course, come in the form of people. All kinds of people. I remember one time bursting into H.E.B. to get my shopping done (I’m totally my father’s daughter and am a woman on a mission when it comes to grocery shopping…get in, gather up, and get out!). Anyway, on this particular trip I was zooming down the aisle when all of a sudden I came upon a woman from India with her beautiful baby boy of about two years of age. This little boy looked into my eyes (and my soul!) and smiled big at me and I was toast from that point on. I forgot my mission of shopping and could have just followed him around the store for his entire outing if I could have gotten away with it. Pure love. Just pure love and happy to share it with you too!

Keep an eye out for the good souls out there…cuz they’re out there. They come in all forms and fashions and sometimes in very unexpected ways. You’ll know when you’ve seen one because you’ll feel your heart warm up or maybe contract just a bit. The heart always knows.

What good souls have you encountered lately?