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A few days ago, I was helping at the store while several customers were waiting for their chocolates. While they waited, something beautiful happened, they started talking to one another. Stories were exchanged. Experiences were shared.
At one point, one of our clients told the group about a trip to Italy, where she'd taken a cooking class with an older Italian woman.
The woman had shared what she considered the secret to an extraordinary Bolognese: a small piece of 100% chocolate, added at the very end.
Of course, the chocolatier in me perked up immediately.
But what fascinated me even more was everything happening around her.
I stood back and watched, people asking questions, reacting, offering pieces of their own lives in return.
And I found myself thinking: every person we meet is an entire universe walking beside us.
Each of us carries stories, places we've visited, things we've learned, people we've loved, mistakes we've made, recipes someone once whispered to us in an Italian kitchen.
So much knowledge and life quietly traveling inside ordinary people. And when we truly listen; with curiosity, attention, and presence; we're given access to worlds we might never have discovered on our own.
A new perspective.
A new idea.
Something that wasn't even on our radar five minutes before.
Perhaps the people we forget to listen to most carefully are the ones closest to us.
We think we already know their stories. We know what they're going to say.
We know who they are. And somewhere along the way, familiarity quietly replaces curiosity.
But what if we approached the people we love as if there were still something about them we'd never discovered?
What would they tell us?
What would we notice?
What could we learn?
That afternoon, I felt deeply grateful; for our clients, and for those few unexpected minutes of conversation. I was reminded, once again, that my soul grows a little richer with every genuine exchange.
So lately, I've been asking myself a simple question:
Am I present enough to really listen today?
As for the Bolognese; I haven't tried the chocolate yet. But I can't wait.
With love,
Alejandra
P.S. What might you discover this week, if you listened to someone you think you already know?
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