I experienced joy today: the easiest way to experience anything is to cause another to experience it!

I always look forward to my Saturday morning sports appointment in the Mt Fébé area. On this specific day after rigorously jogging and dancing (to the songs on my iPod shuffle), I decided to take a moment to enjoy the flowers in the flower garden of the Bastos round about. As I sat on one of the benches after a series of stretching exercises, I looked into the blue/grey sky and took a deep breathe to feel the moment. I gave thanks for my life and for the many achievements, for good health and for the strength to do sports. I remembered that the easiest way to feel something is to cause another to feel it.

Just then I notice two young men picking up something in the gardens. Initially I thought they were harvesting mushrooms. Then I realized they were rather caretakers of the gardens; they were picking up dirt. I walked up to them and noticed it was peelings of sugarcane left by visitors to the garden, as well as fallen leaves from the flowers among other trash. I greeted them and started picking along with them. They were apparently overwhelmed and couldn’t help wondering why I would want to do such a thing. I smiled back and told them not to worry, let’s just work together…

One of the young men said to me in broken French, “You are really a nice Cameroonian; I have never met anyone in this country who is as nice as you”. From his accent I could tell he was from another French-speaking African country. His other companion was also very surprised that I joined them to pick up the trash.

One of the photographers in the garden walked up to me and said, “From every indication you are a housewife who likes working a lot”. I smiled, marveled at his prejudice, said hello, and continued picking the trash. Another guy in the gardens who had been jogging asked me to carry him on my back so that he could do his stretching exercises, I told him I was busy, let him find someone else.

We worked for about 30minutes and the garden was now looking very neat and tidy. I was glad I had the opportunity to make the workers feel joyful, that someone could join them in their task that morning, thereby fastening the pace of the task. They gave me a tiny bar of soap to wash my hands at the nearby tap when we finished.

Usually after sports, I buy sugarcane to eat at home. I bought some on my way home and as I drove along, I felt true joy. It is said that the easiest way to experience something is to cause another to experience it, because we are all one. Words are so limited in explaining what the heart feels at times. It felt like a combination of satisfaction, excitement, blessing, fulfillment, enlightenment… When I got back home that morning, I settled down for a sugarcane treat after a warm shower. I realized that that particular sugarcane was the sweetest I had ever eaten!