We all know the surprise we feel when a stranger acts wonderfully kind for no apparent reason and for nothing in return. We call these acts of kindness random, because we have gotten so out of touch with kindness in our daily lives.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if instead of shocking us, kindness was just plain regular, something we all shared and spread around freely, and that we all took time to celebrate along the way?
At my son's school, they actually have kindness parties after they've accumulated spontaneous kind acts from each child in the class. What's astonishing is how wonderfully willing and excited the kids get when kindness happens. It sets the room aglow and spills out of the room into the halls.
Can you imagine throwing kindness parties in our adult lives?
Kindness is indeed profound. Rumi says, "For kindness has the power to transform." How true. Especially after a crummy not-so-nice-feeling day, when suddenly at bedtime my son interrupts our reading to say, "You are the most spectacular mommy and the best writer ever. I just love you. And I love your beautiful hair, and your eyes." I mean, wow!
Talk about instant soothing, instant healing. Kindness is just this: instant and eternal at once.
Do you agree?
Still, I feel like I always have to remind myself of my own capacity for kindness, one that we all clearly have -- because we all clearly had it as pure-hearted children. It just gets eclipsed in our unkindly stumbles, especially toward ourselves.
What if we took each stumble as an opportunity to pledge more kindness?
Can you envision the world with kindness abundant in and around us, where we are legitimately in the habit of being it, doing it, and feeling it A LOT?
I know I'm asking you a bunch of questions this go-round. It's intentional. These are the questions I ask myself all the time. Help me out here.
When we start to ask about kindness, we begin to believe in fostering it more, to the point where it just keeps on blooming, large and immeasurable, like nothing else.
Don't you think?
In kindness,
ML
For more by Maggie Lyon, click here.
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