Life throws up challenges, but life can also be beautiful. A very dear friend shared a very interesting and inspiring true story.

On a stormy night, an elderly couple entered a small hotel in Philadelphia asking for a room. The hotel was fully occupied, but the friendly clerk with a winning smile said he could not let them out in the rain at one o’clock in the morning and offered them his room for the night. The couple declined, but the young man assured them he would be just fine. The couple agreed.

The next morning as they were checking out the man said to the clerk – “You are the kind of manager who should be the boss of the best hotel in America. Maybe someday I will build one for you.” The three of them had a good laugh.

Two years later the clerk received an invitation from the couple to visit New York with a round trip ticket enclosed. Upon his arrival, the man took him to the corner of 5th Avenue and 34th Street. Pointing to a great new building, he said – “this is the hotel I have built for you to manage”. The man was William Waldorf Astor and the magnificent structure was the original Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. The young clerk was George Boldt, who never imagined he would manage one of the world’s most famous hotels.

Our future is not constrained by where we are. It is determined by the genuine care we give others, not because we expect something in return, but because it fosters meaningful relationships.

When we go out of our way to help others, not only do we make a difference to them, we can change our world as well.

What goes around, comes around. At a fundamental level, we reap the rewards of our actions. When the time is right, the right people come into our life.

When we display an extraordinary attitude in our daily life, operating with a helpful and friendly nature, we open up the possibilities for the unimaginable to take place. And when that does happen, we realise the simple truth – life can be beautiful.

(Picture- A beautiful butterfly on our rug at home)