Witnessing selfless acts of love and kindness can inspire you to do the same. This will lead you to a more abundant life. Those who have a teacher who is a living breathing example of giving back to life in everything they do are most fortunate indeed.

In an early class I attended at the Nature Awareness School there was a student who had recently lost a loved one. At the end of class, Del, the teacher, handed out a small gift to each student in class – a small blue bead that represented our personal experiences with the Divine we each had been blessed with during class. He picked one for himself then gave it to the student in honor of their loved one who had recently passed. I was touched deeply by this. It did not seem contrived or done for effect. It felt genuine and sincere and from the heart.

When I arrived home that act of generosity stayed with me. It kept tugging at my heart until I decided I had to do something, to respond to it in kind. So I sent my blue bead to Del with a short note. His small act had triggered something within me, an innate trust for him buried there. In the note I identified him as a “teacher of the heart.” I am pretty sure I had never even heard that phrase before I wrote it, or given much thought to what one was. Yet I knew without a doubt that he was, and is, just such a teacher. Since that day, he has shown me I am so much happier when I give without expecting anything in return other than the joy of giving. “Giving is its own reward” goes the cliche. It has proven to be very true in my life. It turns out I was not the only one moved by that simple gesture that day. Another student had in fact been similarly touched and had sent their bead to Del as well.

This story is a happy one. Both me and the other student received a replacement bead at a later class, which I was not expecting, but was silently hoping for, and overjoyed to accept. Mine will always remind me that a “Teacher of the Heart,” one who teaches by lessons and by example, is a rare and precious gift. A teacher who hears and speaks to our hearts, who is fluent in the Language of the Divine, and who is adept at reading us better than we often know ourselves. A teacher who knows how to help us be the best we can be spiritually. The kind of teacher to give us practical tools to live a better life; the abundant life God has planned for us. The kind of teacher God would send to His children to help remind us He loves us and wants us to return home again.

Written by Chris Comfort