practice random acts of kindness and senseless acts of beauty

I helped my brother in law get his feral cats spayed. This was quite a job and required the assistance of other people.
I give many things I no longer use like clothing and shoes to charity.
I hold doors for people and other small things that I don’t even consider.

I helped make the wedding of some friends special even though they just went to the justice of the peace. I offered to take pictures and spent time with the bride finding good poses. I bought them a wedding cake. My husband and I took them out for a nice wedding dinner. I took the traditional cake and toasting with beer in champagne glasses pictures. It was a wonderful evening and I think we all felt blessed from experiencing the power of love and union.

I asked another friend who runs a not for profit for help raising money for this sick little boy I know. She surprised me by donating items for me to sell that should add up to $100. I was really touched. Maybe I needed help making this act of kindness come true. I seem to have a pattern of committing not so random acts of kindness but acts of kindness.

Read “The Force of Kindness:change your life with live and compassion.” by Sharon Salzberg. She published a beautiful poem by Naomi Shihab Nye called “Kindness” in it. http://elise.com/quotes/poetry/naomi.htm

Kindness

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.

The biggest one is that people always come to me to listen to them. I don’t mind to a certain point but there comes a point when my listening skills feels abused. Okay, people aren’t always grateful for the things you do to help them. Love them anyway. sigh! It’s much more fun doing random acts. I like seeing the surprise on people’s faces.

I’m on a Paradoxical commandment kick. This one is “People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs. Fight for underdogs anyway.” I have always tried to do this. No matter what or how bad I feel about my life, I always come back to this goal. My life would not be complete without practicing random acts of kindness and not so random acts of kindness. “If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives. Do good anyway.” I was accused once of doing good for an ulterior reason. I really didn’t have a motive. I just was happy and giving made me happy. But some people got jealous and tried to sabotage me. But I was happy anyway and I continued helping people anyway.

“People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care…about them.”
- St.Francis Xavier

I’ve never been able to help anyone or make them listen to me unless they thought that I cared about them first. It’s as if they could not hear the information unless it came from a voice that cared. People seem to discount the true and honest advice if the words were not underscored with compassion. I know a person in a position to help people but she has a hateful disposition. No one really trusts the wisdom of what she says. Even if she is right. Perhaps it is more important to be kind than right. That may not always be true but kindness is so underated in this world.

I haven’t actively thought about doing this since I’ve been in a health crisis for a few months. I remember how much better it makes me feel to help someone even if I only smile and speak to someone I don’t know. After a while, my spirits feel raised, too. Even a few seconds of warmth from another human being can make a big difference in how I feel about myself. The crazy thing is I started this trying to help others and it makes me feel better.

I couldn’t help a friend with her writing but instead of beating myself up and feeling useless, I contacted another friend who can also help her. I felt relieved because I didn’t let her down. Just smiling and speaking to everyone seems to be a great kindness. Wne I smile at someone who looks sad, it is a great feeling when they returns my smile. In some small way, I feel like I’ve helped make that person feel better about his or her day.