Skip to content

Posts tagged ‘kindness’

Jun 3

Faith into Deed

“The test of faith is whether I can make space for difference. Can I recognize God’s image in someone who is not in my image, who language, faith, ideal, are different from mine? If I cannot, then I have made God in my image instead of allowing him to remake me in his.”― Jonathan Sacks, The Dignity of Difference: How to Avoid the Clash of Civilizations

May understanding be my first and last act.
Clearing the path for all.
Inviting and allowing difference.
A potpourri of belonging and hospitality.
Love well without rules or restrictions.
Love has none.
Gentle, kind, gritty and enduring.
It sticks.
A real Presence.
An anchoring.
Faith and truth into deed.
No more fear.
Still small voice that is never silenced.
Listen.
The answer will always be love.

“So meaning is made, not just discovered. That is what religion for the most part is: the constant making and remaking of meaning, by the stories we tell, the rituals we perform and the prayers we say. The stories are sacred, the rituals divine commands, and prayer a genuine dialogue with the divine. Religion is an authentic response to a real Presence, but it is also a way of making that presence real by constantly living in response to it. It is truth translated into deed.”― Jonathan Sacks, The Great Partnership: God, Science and the Search for Meaning

“In an age of fear, moderation is hard to find and harder to sustain. Who wants to listen to a nuanced argument, when what we want is someone to relieve us from the burden of thought and convince us that we were right all along? So people mock. They blame. They caricature. They demonize. In an age of anxiety, few can hear the still small voice that the Bible tells us is the voice of God.”― Jonathan Sacks, The Great Partnership: Science, Religion, and the Search for Meaning

Feb 6

Aloof to Tender

“With the delicacy of a flower,
love tames the most aloof hearts.”― Augusto Branco

“Kindness is not the same as niceness, or putting our heads in the sand, or avoiding conflict. It is acknowledging that no life is as it seems on the surface. It is understanding that we never know all the layers in a life, and choosing to speak and act from that difficult gray place in all of us.”― Kerry Egan, On Living

The delicacy of a flower.
The immensity of a mountain.
The light of the sun.
The softness of a summer breeze.
The depth of the ocean.
The expanse of the sky.
The flow of a river.
The strength of a tree.
Love harnesses, tames, frees, multiplies, deepens, spreads, expands, heals, creates.
Root, anchor, move with love, kindness, compassion.
Self, others, the world.
Melting aloof into tender.

“Love your neighbor, even the ones who do not show you the same courtesy. You can’t expect to receive love if you’re selective and not really willing to give it. What you put into the world, you will indeed get back, even if it’s not from the person you’re expecting it to be.”― Alexandra Elle, Words from a Wanderer

Jan 27

Full Immersion and Expression

“Love feels no burden, thinks nothing of trouble, attempts what is above its strength, pleads no excuse of impossibility; for it thinks all things lawful for itself, and all things possible.” – Thomas a Kempis

“What are the characteristics of the most wonderful people you know? The WONDERFUL ones? They said, Loving. Caring. Kind. And so I asked them, Is that not what success actually is? To be a wonderful person who touches someone else’s life?”― Julie Lythcott-Haims, Your Turn: How to Be an Adult

Above and beyond.
The extra mile.
Reaching out.
Going first to engage, not waiting or taking turns.
No calculation, measure, keeping score.
A smile that shouts “HELLO.”
An exclamation point.
A comma and semi-colon to pause.
Inquiry and observation.
A conversation, a real connection.
Listening to understand, not reply.
Responding with gentleness rather than judgment.
Generosity of spirit.
Soft heart.
A magnet.
Hospitality and welcoming.
Inviting and belonging.
This is love.
Tether and anchor in love and then go show it.
Loving. Caring. Kind.
This is how we save ourselves and the world.
The power of one, then another, and another…
No excuse of impossibility.
All things possible.
Light your wick.
Full immersion and expression.

“Compassion means the full immersion in the condition of being human.” – Henri Nouwen

Jan 18

Only Kinship

“There is no force in the world better able to alter anything from its course than love.”― Gregory Boyle, Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion

“No daylight to separate us.

Only kinship. Inching ourselves closer to creating a community of kinship such that God might recognize it. Soon we imagine, with God, this circle of compassion. Then we imagine no one standing outside of that circle, moving ourselves closer to the margins so that the margins themselves will be erased. We stand there with those whose dignity has been denied. We locate ourselves with the poor and the powerless and the voiceless. At the edges, we join the easily despised and the readily left out. We stand with the demonized so that the demonizing will stop. We situate ourselves right next to the disposable so that the day will come when we stop throwing people away.”― Gregory Boyle, Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion

Kinship, kindness, compassion in abundance.
Margins erased, boundaries crossed, connections made.
The noise of othering, judgment, and opinion fade to reveal our shared humanity.
May love be our map and destination.
Oh, the places we could go.

“We exercise kindness in any moment when we recognize our shared humanity—with all the hopes, dreams, joys, disappointments, vulnerability, and suffering that implies.”― Sharon Salzberg, Real Love: The Art of Mindful Connection

Jun 28

1 Comment

Who will you meet today?

“We are what our thoughts have made us; so take care about what you think. Words are secondary. Thoughts live; they travel far.” – Swami Vivekananda

Invite and entertain new thoughts.
Engage in conversations to create connection.
There’s a vast landscape to be discovered in front of us.
Understanding, depth, a sacredness.
Be kind and generous.
Remove the layers to reveal the gift.
Grace given. Grace received.
Who will you meet today?

“The moment I have realized God sitting in the temple of every human body, the moment I stand in reverence before every human being and see God in him – that moment I am free from bondage, everything that binds vanishes, and I am free.” – Swami Vivekananda

Jun 15

New Math

“When one loves, one does not calculate.”― St. Thérèse de Lisieux

No subtraction or division.
Multiplication and addition perhaps.
The calculation that grows, expands, deepens.
Better yet, no counting, inventory, calculation.
A smile, a nod, an encouraging word.
Love in acts and action, a possibility in each moment.
Kindness in play.
Go first.

“A word or a smile is often enough to put fresh life in a despondent soul.”― St. Thérèse de Lisieux

May 2

Kindness

“People are not problems to be solved. They are mysteries to be explored.” – Eugene H. Peterson

Go into the world (the next room, the coffee shop, traffic, work) and be kind first.
No preconceptions, no judgments, no assumptions.
Give criticism a time out.
Fresh eyes, rapt attention, a listening heart.
Beyond self into communion, connection, love.
Consider alternatives, opposites, upside downs.
Twists, turns, mystery, unknowing.
Unfolding, flowing, darkness, greys, brilliant colors, light.
Choose learning and expanding over certainty and being “right.”
Scatter joy and hope, leave peace to take root and bloom.
Be kind. Repeat.

“Remember, there’s no such thing as a small act of kindness. Every act creates a ripple with no logical end.” — Scott Adams

Feb 2

2-2-22

“Let us be grateful to people who make us happy, they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.” – Marcel Proust

On this day of “2”s – second month, second day, twenty second year – may we be prompted to move out of self into other. To the collective, to us. Expand, seek, reach out, connect with others. Partake on this shared journey, knowing that we are not alone, present for others, listening, walking along side in companionship.

When we cast light, the light shines back on us twofold. Compounding, multiplying, exponential. Go out of self and see other people. Tell them you see them with a smile, a hello, an invitation to go ahead in line, an embrace, a prayer for their well-being.

Kindness, concern, empathy, laughter, joy, understanding open our hearts, expose our souls, extend our hands to a wide world that needs our attention and love, one person at a time.

“Let us always meet each other with smile, for the smile is the beginning of love.” – Mother Teresa

Dec 31

I Told You So

“Acts of kindness never die. They linger in the memory, giving life to other acts in return.” – Rabbi Jonathan Sacks

“Can we see the trace of God in the face of a stranger?” – Rabbi Jonathan Sacks

May our “I told you so” statements be steeped in generosity not righteousness and indignation.
Words, acts and affirmations of encouragement, support, connection, belonging, listening, inquiry, companionship, empathy, kindness.
To self and others.
Especially when it makes no sense whatsoever.
In our pursuit of needing to be right at all costs, it is costing us relationships, connection and community.
Opinions, accusations, and assumptions are drowning out the richness, complexity and dimension of differences and commonalities within the differences that tie humanity together.
As we enter a new year, may kindness be our guide, joy our daily companion and love our destiny.
Together rather than other.
If we keep but these resolutions, we will heal the world from COVID and all other pandemics of the heart.
You are worthy, messy, beautiful, incomplete, redeemable, resilient, forgiving, kind, generous, capable, strong, wholehearted. You have the capacity and agency for this and so much more. Believe and pursue.
I told you so!

“The responsible life is one that responds. In the theological sense it means that God is the question to which our lives are an answer.” – Rabbi Jonathan Sacks

Dec 9

Plant Kindness, Harvest Love

“May my soul bloom in love for all existence.” – Rudolf Steiner

“Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love.” – Lao Tzu

Learn a second language.
Use it daily.
Kindness.
Master it through practice.
Become proficient.
From me to we.
Plant it wherever you go without reserve or account.
Cast light daily and it shines back on you.
Circular, encompassing, full bloom.

“I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me.” – Matthew 25:35

« Older Entries
%d bloggers like this: