Spiritual Kindness

I believe in kindness.

The intentional practice of being kind connects us with one another, gives us energy to walk our daily journey, and brings joy that brightens dreary, lonely days. An act of kindness lingers in our souls providing strength and nourishment and is sometimes the only thread we have to cling to.

I believe in kindness.

It is easier not to go visit an elderly friend or to smile at the store clerk or to cook soup for the lonely widower. But this doesn’t make it right either. It will take me a lifetime to fully learn that it is not about me, my wants or needs.

I believe in kindness.

I believe we have to make our minds up to practice this quality moment by moment, day by day.
Michael Roach tells a story about kindness in the book The Diamond Cutter:

“The early Buddhists of Tibet were known as the Kadampas — they were simple people, herders and carpenters and small farmers, who took to the new ideas like fish to water, in their simple but exquisite way. They carried around a small bag of pebbles, half white and half black. Whenever they had a very good thought, or said something very positive to another person, or did someone else a kindness, they would take a white pebble out and put it say in their left pocket. Every time they had a negative thought about someone else, or said or did something unkind to another person, they would take a black pebble out of the bag and put it in their right pocket.
“At the end of the day, just before going to bed, they would take all the pebbles out of their pockets and count up the black and the white. They immediately learned, as you will too, that the black pebbles far outnumbered the white pebbles. This isn’t to say we’re all evil and that we should always feel guilty or dirty — it just means that the basic condition of most minds in this corner of the universe (and there are many other corners) happens to work that way. A very, very important quality of our minds though — and you can see this is true — is that they are eminently trainable. With a little practice, your mind can learn almost anything; it’s just a question of putting your mind to it.”

I believe in kindness.

Being kind is contagious – one act leads to another, then another. Kindness radiates a powerful positive reach far beyond our imagination. Mother Teresa wrote, “Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.”

Kindness is a quality I feel I need to nurture more in my life and my heart is open to God’s leading in this area.

In my kitchen hangs a plaque I have had for many years that reads:
“I shall pass through this world but once. Any good therefore that I can do or any kindness that I can show to any human being, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it for I shall not pass this way again.”

I believe in kindness.