KINDNESS

A lot has happened on Laughing Water Farm. I will begin with the theme for the day, Kindness. Many spiritual teachers and gurus like to boil down their teachings to one word or phrase. Someone, perhaps it was the Dali Lama, said, I paraphrase, 'the chief characteristic of an enlightened soul is kindness.'

Kindness- it makes sense. Kindness means we appreciate everyone's position. We see. We understand. We have compassion- when it is called for. We treat others as we would want to be treated. Is there any other way to be, but kind? If we are loving, how else could we be?

This was brought home to me by my own unkindness. I started an argument, with somebody very close to me, by being unkind. I would never think of myself as being unkind. Yet, I was. When we find ourselves being righteous, be wary, only the ego is righteous. If we loved ourselves sufficiently, we would never be righteous. We would never be unkind. If we loved ourselves sufficiently, we would be kind to ourselves. Being kind to 'the other' is being kind to ourselves. After all, we are one.

It is interesting that unkindness would occur in a very close relationship. I have had many years experience as a family therapist, and I know, the most unkind cuts happen in the closest relationships. Sometimes we treat strangers better than we treat our loved ones. Why? We take our loved ones for granted. Our egos are like spoiled children that demand we be loved and accepted no matter how badly we behave. We spare strangers the worst tantrums of our egos but feel it is fine to expose our families to our craziness. Interesting.

It is a matter of growing up. Grown ups are kind. We can't grow up if we refuse to love ourselves. We need to open up to the unconditional love that is available, always. We need to bathe in love and wash away those ancient hurts and doubts about our own lovableness.

Keeping thoughts of kindness in our minds opens up the channels of love. We can learn to catch ourselves when judgement or righteousness arises. It is a signal that the spoiled child/ego is attempting to dominate our consciousness. We need to focus our love on that hurt child inside. Love will heal if we let it. We will grow up. We will learn to be kind all the time.

We have lost a family member on Laughing Water Farm. Rosie, our dog, died. Rosie was fifteen years old. She was small, 3/4 Yorkie and 1/4 poodle. She didn't think she was small. She had a huge spirit. She liked to stand out on the porch and bark, back and forth, with the neighbors' dogs. She made her position clear that she was mistress of this estate. Of course she never met one of these other dogs.

We got her when she was a few weeks old and would fit in the palms of my hands. We have had many dogs and I have loved them all, but Rosie was in a class by herself. I used to take her with me wherever I went, to the feed store, to get the paper, anytime she could either go in with me or there wouldn't be much wait in the truck. She loved riding in the truck.

Although she struggled with asthma, off and on, she didn't have many health problems. She acted like a puppy until very recently. In the last year or so her bouts with asthma were more serious, but Jamie was able to successfully treat her with medications. She recently had one of these more serious bouts with asthma and after coming out of it she seemed better than ever. In fact, she seemed rejuvenated. It was like having our young dog back again. A week ago she started to decline. She was peaceful. There was no sign of suffering. Her breathing was labored and she wouldn't eat. It was clear she was going to leave us.

Yesterday Morning, she went outside and laid on the grass by the walkway. She loved to Sun herself. When I went outside a few minutes later, I could see, without approaching her, that her spirit had left her body.

It is sad; but Rosie had a marvelous life. She gave much to all and she was loved. We couldn't have asked for a more beautiful death, lying peacefully in the Sun.

Yesterday was Jamie's birthday; so we celebrated a birthday, a wake, and a burial. We did rejoice. We did give thanks. We celebrated life. We loved.

Love and Peace,  Gregg