Kindness

I wanted to share this article I read over the weekend about kindness, and acts of kindness.  Kindness is something I try to bring to each and every fellow human I encounter each day.  I need to remember this article, as there are times when I don’t want to be kind to another human being.  There are people that just rub me the wrong way – there are some very arrogant people that I have to deal with on a daily/weekly basis – arrogance is at the top of my list of traits I despise in people.  We are all the same.  Act like it.



MONET



CRICKET

Monet (Blake) – I now know why Blake’s name was changed to Monet.  After he returned to my home yesterday after being neutered, and after his initial fright of me, and new surroundings, I was able to observe the happy little kitten inside of him, and how beautiful his colors are on the outside.  He is like a Monet painting, so his name will remain Monet for now, until I can get him adopted.  Then I have no say!  But he is a beautiful little boy that will fit in well with the others for now, I hope.  My little Cricket goes to his new home this evening, and its going to be a tough goodbye.  I love him so.  But I soldier on in my quest to remove these tiny creatures from the mean streets and find them good homes!

KINDNESS (article)

On my way to work a few weeks ago, I stopped at a bagel shop and ordered my usual bagel with egg and cheese.

This was routine for me, but on this particular morning, I was especially hungry and eagerly looking forward to my sandwich.  But when I opened my wallet, I realized I had left my cash and credit card at home.

Seeing how flustered I was, a young woman in line behind me offered to pay.

At first, out of sheer embarrassment, I refused, but she insisted, easing my reluctance by gently suggesting that I do the same for someone else when the opportunity arose.

I left the bagel shop smiling and with a good feeling.

Her kind deed had stirred within me an overwhelming desire to ‘pass it on’, and throughout the day I found myself looking for opportunities to show kindness.

I soon realized that I did not have to look far, for they surrounded me.

There was the maintenance man struggling to hold his cardboard boxes while trying to put a key in a lock.

I offered to take his keys and unlock the door.

He gave me a big smile and has smiled at me every day since.

At lunchtime, I sat with a co-worker I was just getting to know.

She was having a bad day, and to my pleasant surprise, she decided to share with me what was going on.

We talked, and I offered her some words of encouragement.

When our lunch break ended and we parted, she smiled and said, “you helped me see things in a different light.  Thank you for listening.”

Later that day, on my way home, as I was leaving the grocery store parking lot, the woman next to me had dropped her watermelon, and it had rolled  underneath a car.

As several of us gathered around offering suggestions on how to reach the watermelon, one of the men said “OK, everyone step back!  I am going under.”

We cheered him on as he proceeded to crawl under the car and rescue the runaway melon.

The woman thanked the man profusely for his kindness, and we all chuckled about the crowd that had formed in aid in this recovery effort simply by offering encouragement.

That night, as I reflected on my day, and my thoughts of compassion and kindness filled my mind, I remembered a poem by Henry Burton:

Have you had a kindness shown?

Pass it on;

Let it travel down the years,

Let it wipe another’s tears,

‘til in heaven the deed appears,

Pass it on!

That little incident in the bagel shop really got me thinking.

I realized that the more we give, the better we feel about ourselves, and the happier our lives become.

Each small act of kindness we do has the capacity to throw out seeds in all directions, and if these seeds then spring up as new trees of kindness, what a wonderful world this would be.

Pass it on!