At the time I was living in Yverdon, Switzerland, on the ground floor of a small four-storied building and I had access to a little lawn with some flowers. One day, I noticed several cigarette butts on the lawn; irritated, I picked them up. From then on, every day, new butts were tossed in front of my window, and the location suggested that they were thrown from one of the windows of the apartments above my own. Angered I tried to catch the offending smoker, without any success.
Suddenly, I remember that Pierre Pradervand had introduced me to the art of blessing, and I decided to put it to a test.
So I thought about this person and felt compassion for him/her. Indeed, one often lights a cigarette because of hassles, worries, wounds that trouble our lives. Moreover, this person was very likely addicted to cigarette smoking.
So I began blessing this individual in his or her life, to claim on his or her behalf peace and new hope as well as freedom from the smoking dependency. Each butt became a motivation and a reminder to bless. To my surprise, within a few weeks, the cigarette butts disappeared, although nobody in the building had moved out…
The practice of blessing first brought me peace of mind by eliminating my irritation, and then specifically, my lawn remained clean.
CG, Switzerland
