KINDNESS

This Morning I said to Jamie, "I have no idea what I am going to blog about". She replied, "Why don't you write about kindness". Then she remembered a book on kindness she got from the Amish. It was a children's book and she thought it would be inspirational. It was given to Elijah, who reads like an adult, he is five and has been reading since he was two and a half or three. Unfortunately, his mind seems very orderly, but his room isn't. We gave up looking, when the needle in a haystack analogy came to mind.

I have plenty of inspiration in my daily life to help me write about kindness. So many times people have been kind to me when I wasn't feeling very kindly towards myself. I know it has saved my day on occasion.

It reminds me, when I was an undergraduate, working in a paint store. The store was located in an old mixed ethnic neighborhood mostly first generation Jewish, Swedish and Norwegian folks. Most, of course, were delightful people who brightened my day. Every once in awhile, you would get a customer who was a real grump. There was this one old Scandinavian painter who came in frequently. He was so abrupt and rude in his speech to be intimidating. I did not like waiting on. He never smiled. He never said anything pleasant.

One day, it occurred to me, what his life must look to him. I realized that no matter where he went people masked their feelings and treated him with kid gloves. And that would be at best, many people must have returned his grouchiness with grouchiness of their own. I could see that from inside his body, looking out his eyes, the world was a hellish place.

There were, generally, two of us clerking and the manager. We all held back when he came in the store. One day, I decided to change things. I greeted him like he was my favorite customer. I met his usual scowl with a smile. I tried to be as helpful and kindly as I could. It took a long time, he was a frequent customer, but I did get him to change. He never became all smiles, you understand, but he did lose his sourness and quit treating us as something you would scrape off the bottom of your shoe.

I was the one who gained from the experience. It opened my eyes, to how the world is reflected back to us, according to our perception of it. I always remember, you see according to how you feel. The world is what you think it is. It happens to me right now, if I piss and moan about how lousy this Spring is, it affects my perception of everything. {Yes, I have been doing that}

Jamie, has related to me, how she deals with somebody who is critical and judgmental of her. This situation has happened when she was working as a nurse in the hospital. There was a particular nurse who treated her with scorn, this was an individual that nobody seemed to like. Jamie decided to treat her like a long lost friend and always said something complimentary to her and showered her with loving feelings, as much as she was able. This nurse not only improved her attitude towards Jamie but related better to the rest of the staff. This is not an isolated situation; Jamie always tries to remedy a relationship problem by showing kindness to the other person.

Showing kindness to others, always lightens up your life even if you can't see if it helps others. I know it does, from the many, many times when a kindness was shown me, when I didn't expect it. A kindness shown to somebody here in Minnesota will have a ripple effect all the way to China and back again.

Can you imagine the change in the world, that would occur, if we would only keep in the forefront of our mind, to be kind in all our dealings?

Kindness. It is nice to think about kindness.

Love and Peace,  Gregg