“Spread love everywhere you go. Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier.”

-Mother Theresa.

One of the most dangerous fallacies we often give credence to is that at some point our hearts reach a maximum capacity. We place a ceiling on the amount of love we are permitted to spread, and once we hit it, we resign ourselves to the fact that our lives are full and complete. We have a best friend or two, a significant other, a family. Without much thought, we assume there is scarcely more love to give beyond the confines of the people we already hold in our hearts, the people who fit within our narrow perimeters of love.

By neglecting to smile at the old woman on the train, or to thank the cashier, or to wish the receptionist a good afternoon, we withhold a tiny portion of love. That kind of love is harder to spot, but it’s love nonetheless. And it’s easier to give.

The greatest challenge is spreading love to the coworkers, the acquaintances, and the people we judged before we really knew them. The girl who holds her tongue in groups, the boy who talks too loud. The mailman who always remembers your dog’s name, the barista who always spells yours wrong. Do we really know enough to say these people are not in need of our love, even in the simple form of kindness?

When you smile at the girl who holds her tongue and you ask her about her favorite book, you learn she loves Bradbury and free verse poetry and when asked the right questions, she loves to talk.

When you smile at the boy who talks too loud, he smiles back, and he goes home thinking how lovely it is to be addressed in such a simple, silent manner. He smiles at three more strangers on his way to work the next day.

When the mailman comes to drop off your mail and you ask him how his day is going, how his husband is doing, he wonders why he never asked his neighbor the same thing earlier that morning. He makes sure to do so as soon as he sees her next.

The barista who can’t seem to get your name right no matter how many times you order that grande chai latte feels a twinge of guilt every time; he was never good at spelling. When you laugh it off and tell him loads of people make the same mistake, he knows you’re just being kind, but appreciates it greatly nonetheless. The next time you order a chai, there’s a smiley face drawn at the end of your correctly spelled name.

We lose nothing in giving kindness. Perhaps it is not our first inclination to smile at strangers or to instigate conversations with distant acquaintances, but in doing so, we lift the ceiling on love and on our own reservations.

Make sure your encounters with those around you are extensions of the unlimited supply of love you have to give. We have within us the extraordinary capacity to create a domino effect of perpetual compassion…Why not give it a try?