Love conquers all.: family.

A fundamental social group in society typically consisting of one or two parents and their children,

that's the definition in google, but I got a different one because my family is a little bit different...

my family consists of a sister from Brazil who is in love with chocolate, one from Korea who constantly says OoooOO after every sentence, and yes one from Philliphines who screams all the time, and one from Vietnam who loves spicy food, and yes one from Egypt who's birthday is tomorrow, and yes one in Argentina who loves to dance...

a brother from India, or I forget another in Italy...and of course my brother who is Buddhist from Japan...

usually one would think a family is just the people who live in your home,

who one has a biological relation...

but for me my family is of the whole world...

and I met not just one brother from Japan who is also Buddhist, but many brothers and sisters last week.

A group of Buddhist youth came to visit Loppiano (where I'm staying) in Italy...

As soon as I met them, I just wanted to LOVE, to treat them as I would want to be treated...

in pouring water for them at dinner, bringing fruits after the meal for dessert, or holding the door open for them...or just smiling endlessly because I was actually so happy.

and it wasn't coincidence that I started to read a book to learn about buddhism a few weeks before I met them because right now in this house I live in with 42 girls from around the world, one of them is Buddhist!

and I had asked to read a little about her religion...

I discovered the similarity between the root of Buddhism to Christianity is sacrifice, to lose human desires, to reach "enlightment" or eternal happiness; just like Christianity, to follow Jesus, we need to leave our possessions and our attachments, because in sacrificing, in being NOTHING, we gain EVERYTHING.

"To be nothing is everything."

so throughout the day when I was sharing about the Economy of Communion or speaking about the Focolare Movement, I would try my best to put myself in their shoes, to relate each subject to Buddhism. And it was unbelievably how interested they were as they asked many questions and were so welcoming to everything.

At the end of the day, we enjoyed dinner with them and I shared my experiences of how it hasn't be easy living with 42 girls from all different countries, and my experiences of re-starting again. One of the girls from Japan, she was so impressed by our experiences, our smiles, our joy, and she shared that when I introduced her to another friend and said "here is my friend Erika," she was so touched and so full of joy. Throughout the whole night, she was even pouring coke for everyone, and I really witnessed the reciprocity of love we shared. I began by loving first, pouring water the dinner before, and she reciprocated. Not just her, but another was holding the door open for everyone, and little by little the smiles of their faces glowed brighter and brighter...