Embrace Curiosity on Your Kindness Journey If you understand each other, you will be kind to each other. John Steinbeck We all make judgments about others, based on attitudes we acquired from our families or from our own experiences. Over time, they become a part of us. When we withhold kindness from someone because of those judgments, we can be aware that we do not have enough information about […]
What Container Is holding Your Life Experiences? Life is bristling with thorns, and I know no other remedy than to cultivate one’s garden. Voltaire When we experience something in our lives that we prefer would not happen, we often feel sad, helpless, even angry at life. This week, I learned a new way of looking at these experiences. In her article, “Stop Being a Glass – Become a Lake,” […]
The Power of Patience on Our Kindness Journey Patience is not simply the ability to wait. it’s how we behave while we’re waiting. Joyce Mayer When we have a vision of something for our lives, we sometimes lose patience, wanting to see it show up now. That’s understandable. But we need to be encouraged by the small steps that we are able to take as we live inspired […]
How Do We Become a Kinder Community? Community isn’t something that just happens to us. It’s something we build. Naheed Nenshi This is a continuation of my last message, Who do We Want to Be as a Community? Reading it will give you a background for this post. Once we choose a lens of kindness through which to view homeless people, we are inclined to think about solutions […]
Who Do We Want to Be as a Community? Find the goodness in everyone and pass it on with kindness. Dolly Parton We are in the middle of a crisis. Throughout our country, we are seeing a dramatic increase in people who are experiencing homelessness. It is a reality that affects millions of people – those who are living without a home and those who encounter them in […]
The Power of Love in Response to Addiction What seems to us as bitter trials are often blessings in disguise. Oscar Wilde – Irish Poet This morning, I listened to an inspiring presentation by Killian Noe, the founding director of The Recovery Café Network. She offered ideas on “Living with Hope in the Darkness of Our Time,” and her comments relate to our work with kindness as well as […]
When Feeling Sad or Overwhelmed When I despair, I remember that all through history, the way of truth and love have always won. – Mahatma Gandhi During the last week, I felt myself being pulled into a feeling of frustration, even a bit of overwhelm, as I faced several challenges that I could not figure out how to resolve. As I looked for music to help me shift my […]
Love is a Powerful Force in the World Your task is not to seek love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it. Helen Schucman The subject of love intrigues me. Many articles or videos come to my attention every week, and I am easily pulled in. Last week, an interesting article left me pondering the question: “What is […]
We Are Planting Seeds Every Day The true meaning of life is to plant trees under whose shade you do not expect to sit. Nelson Henderson We believe that living with kindness transforms the world – not all at once and not by ourselves alone – but bit-by-bit, day-by-day, through acts of kindness powered by love. Sometimes we see a positive effect from a smile, a kind […]
Finding Your Power at a Time of Uncertainty. The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new. Socrates As we continue to see extreme divisions in the United States, most of us are still trying to make sense of the outpouring of hatred and violence that is threatening a peaceful way forward. […]
Do We Belong to Each Other? Tomorrow belongs to those of us who conceive of it as belonging to everyone, who lend the best of ourselves to it, and with joy. Audre Lorde I have been pondering this question lately – Do we belong to each other? When we think of belonging, we usually think of owning something – that car belongs to me or this coat is mine. […]
Living with Kindness Makes Life a Celebration One should never, but never, pass by an opportunity to celebrate. j d malouf Life offers us so many opportunities to celebrate. We usually think of celebrating special moments in our life journey – anniversaries, birthdays, major accomplishments. At these times, we stop and enjoy the moment. Sharing with others – the exchange of love and appreciation – enriches the occasion. It […]
Embrace Curiosity on Your Kindness Journey If you understand each other, you will be kind to each other. John Steinbeck This is an update of a previous post. It is #4 of our series: The 9 Cs of Kindness. We all make judgments about others, based on attitudes we acquired from our families or from our own experiences. Over time, they become a part of us. When we withhold kindness […]
We’re All Connected in the Web of Life We are here to awaken from our illusion of separateness. Thich Nhat Hanh As I write this, the world is watching the daily unfolding of horrors in Ukraine, as the war continues. The massive destruction of cities and infrastructure is hard to watch, and our hearts go out to the millions of people who have lost their homes, their livelihood, and the […]
Reflections on Giving and Receiving When we give cheerfully and accept gratefully, everyone is blessed. Maya Angelou This is a season of giving and receiving. In our hurried lives, we often get so caught up with the making or buying, then wrapping and maybe mailing of gifts, that it becomes more of a chore than a celebration. For many people, the season brings unfulfilled expectations, or feelings of guilt […]
The Everyday Spirit of Thankfulness Gratefulness allows us to nurture a keener eye that no longer rushes past the small everyday moments that make up the larger part of our lives. Guri Mehta How wonderful it is to take the spirit of Thanksgiving into every day. We often go through our lives without noticing the things around us that help to create the setting for our life experience. Most […]
Can We Change Our Narrative? I always bow down to the so-called average person who shows that, in fact, average human people can and do change the narrative in a very profound way. – James O’Dea – A narrative is a story that “connects and explains a carefully selected set of supposedly true events, experiences, or the like, intended to support a particular viewpoint or thesis” What narratives […]
You Are a Walking Neon Sign Identity is something that you are constantly earning. It is a process that you must be active in. Joss Whedon We are all energy beings. The energy of our mood and our current thoughts does accompany us as we move about in our day. It shows up in our posture, the expression on our face, the way we move and in the […]
7 Easy Steps to Compassion We can’t heal the world today, but we can begin with a voice of compassion, a heart of love, and an act of kindness. Mary Davis This morning, as I contemplated compassion, a tiny spider descended on an invisible thread before me. Hello, I said silently as she continued her journey. Hurry off the floor before some unaware foot crushes you. I recently […]
That Could Be Me I think we all have empathy. We may not have enough courage to display it. Maya Angelou During the last few months, in our community and around the country, the homeless population has grown dramatically. As a result, more and more people are using online platforms and public meetings to complain that the presence of people living on the streets is having a […]
The Power of Not-Knowing I think it’s much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers which might be wrong. – Richard P. Feynman – Have you ever noticed that sometimes what you know about someone gets in the way of your being kind? Perhaps: they did something that you don’t approve of, and you can’t let go of it in your mind, you made an […]
Kindness and Gratitude Dance Together If you begin and finish your days with thoughts of gratitude, you’ll find yourself living from a place of abundance rather than lack. Erica Layne September 21st is World Gratitude Day, so we thought this was an opportunity to think about how to bring more gratitude into our lives. We have noticed that the more we live with gratitude, the more we are […]
A New Way of Looking at Compassion If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion. ~ Dalai Lama Compassion, according to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, is a “sympathetic consciousness of others’ distress together with a desire to alleviate it.” In other words, we want to help when we are aware of the suffering of others. Thinking about the role of compassion in […]
An Upgrade to the Golden Rule Do unto others as you would have others do unto you. The Golden Rule How do you want to be treated? We each have an answer to that question, and our answers may have different details, but most can be summed up as being treated with kindness. If you want to be treated kindly, the answer is simple: treat other […]
We Are Each on Our Own Kindness Path Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for kindness. Seneca We are each living with the gifts and challenges of our life journey – perhaps similar, […]
The Gift of Listening to Each Other Being heard is so close to being loved that, for the average person, they are almost indistinguishable. David W. Augsburger If there were an easy way to expand the reach of your kindness in the world, would you want to use it? Listening is a skill that we all use, but most of us need a little guidance on how to […]
Let’s Be Better Humans When you get lost in the service of helping others, it’s a good place to get lost. Jon Linton After the death of a friend who had become homeless due to an addiction, Jon Linton wanted to do something to help the homeless in Phoenix, Arizona. He began to take photographs of people living on the street to document their plight, and he volunteered […]
The Pause that Refreshes When we pause, allow a gap and breathe deeply, we can experience instant refreshment. … Pema Chödrön As we walk our kindness path, most days go smoothly, as we easily engage people with a pleasant comment, and they usually respond in kind. Some days, however, lead us to more challenging […]
