"What I want is so simple I almost can't say it: elementary kindness." Barbara Kingsolver
In the past couple of years, kindness has taken on new meaning for me. I have always embraced kindness as an act of doing something nice for someone. But, as life goes on and my insight grows, I am understanding that kindness goes beyond actions. I have come to understand that kindness extends to the realm of being, it goes past the realm of doing.
I see kindness as an attitude that flows from the heart. It is a genuine mixture of care and compassion that extends to all. There is no exclusivity in true kindness. Kindness does not see color, religion, ethnicity, or political belief.
When kindness roots itself in our heart, we become a kind person. Rumi says, "the pot drips what's in it," and someone filled with kindness, drips kindness. It becomes much more than an act. It is a way of being.
A kind person notices the suffering of others and holds humanity close within. Upon observing or hearing of someone committing a vicious act or speaking spiteful words, the heart of kindness sees beyond the actions to the pain that has created the meanness and the anguish of another. A heart of kindness feels the suffering of others and knows on a deep level that all the children of the world are our children and we are all one race, the human race.
When our hearts are filled with kindness, we withhold judgment and look instead to the spirit of the person. No one deserves to be kicked when they are down, or told they need to lay in the bed they made. Sometimes we need to be taught how to make the bed differently by someone who cares enough to reach out and show us how to do it.
I aspire to a life of kindness and gentleness towards myself, and a spirit of benevolence towards the world and its occupants. I have seen the power of kind words and actions and have witnessed attitudes soften and behavior change in an instant through one act of kindness.
We all need kindness in our lives. Civilizations and relationships rise and fall on kindness. We are born for kindness. To be treated with kindness feels like a gentle rain falling upon a thirsty earth, and I do believe there are many parched souls among us. I wonder what would happen on this planet if we shared a vision of being kind souls who pour gentleness upon the earth and its inhabitants.
Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things,
feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.
what you held in your hand,
what you counted and carefully saved,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be
between the regions of kindness.
How you ride and ride
thinking the bus will never stop,
the passengers eating maize and chicken
will stare out the window forever.
Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness,
you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho
lies dead by the side of the road.
You must see how this could be you,
how he too was someone
who journeyed through the night
with plans and the simple breath
that kept him alive.
Before you know kindness
as the deepest thing inside,
you must know sorrow
as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow,
You must speak to it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you see the size of the cloth.
then it is only kindness
that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day
to mail letters and purchase bread,
only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
it is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you every where
like a shadow or a friend.
No comments:
Post a Comment