SLOVENIA'S 5 CORE VALUES

We were friends with her daughter, who died when she was twenty-three, and after her death we became friends. Having spent my youth in the parish where she lived all her life, and later returning there for work, my sister and my mother, we were in frequent contact until her old age. I was delighted when she showed me affection now and then with home-made noodles, eggs, cheese, but at the same time she made me uncomfortable, because I did not know what I could do to cheer her up. She always said that she had everything she needed and, what was more, that she would be most happy if I gave her some free time here and there.

It happened that I was at a Sunday lunch in a pub where three young accordionists, one of them a relative of mine, were stretching their accordions after lunch. I was so impressed by their playing that I stuck five euros under the strap of each of their accordions. For encouragement. And I remembered that it would be a good idea to give the same amount to my other three school-age relatives, with whom I see less often, but whom I still love. And I gave them. I was in an economic crisis at the time, so I immediately afterwards reproached myself for sharing the money, even though I am very close to it. I immediately waved it away, because I enjoy nothing more than sharing the good and the beautiful, even if it is only joy and cheerfulness. I try to do for others what I would like others to do for me. It has happened very often that someone has surprised me with kindness and goodness, and in doing so, they have written themselves on the side of my heart, and I would like to find a place of remembrance on that side of people. Acts of kindness enrich both the giver and the receiver.

That day I went to visit my mother in the evening. Shortly after arriving, she handed me a large gift bag. "So I don't forget," she said. "Aunt Milka sent this for you." My dear Milka was thinking of me again. In the bag was a large wheel of home-made cow's cheese and a hundred euros. The money was in an envelope with a note telling me to buy myself a little something.

I smiled and said out loud, "There is a saying that everything comes back or pays, but I have never seen it so fast and with so much interest," I commented on the contents of the bag and laughed. In order for the gathering in my mother's kitchen to understand my comment on the gift I had received, I had to tell them the one about the cash incentive and the reproaches. 

Jerica Strle, 10 Feb 2025