Today's Meditation:

We all have the capacity to spread kindness.  Having the capacity to do so and actually doing so, though, are not necessarily connected--many of us forget during the course of our busy, hectic days that we do have this capacity, and we spend our time instead trying to get things done, trying to make things work, trying to organize and structure our lives so that they become easier.  What power we lose by not allowing ourselves to be kind!

Whatever you conceive God to be, it seems pretty obvious that one of our goals in life is to draw nearer to God by learning to behave in ways that uplift life, that contribute to the peace and love of this world, thus making it a more hospitable place in which to live.  Aren't we always striving to develop ourselves into what we perceive to be an ideal, a certain way of being?  Can we ever reach that ideal if we stoop to using tools such as sarcasm or insults when we're dealing with other people?

More is accomplished by kindness than we can even imagine.  Books and magazines are filled with stories by people who have remembered a certain teacher's kindness, a certain boss's encouragement, a certain adult's compliment for something that someone has done.  These simple little incidents have been remembered for years, helping their recipients through many situations just by being there in their memories.

I can be kind today.  When someone is rude to me, I have the choice of being rude back or showing kindness.  When someone seems to need help, I have the choice to offer some help, no matter how slight it may seem, or ignoring their needs.  It's always my choice to be kind or not, and when I make that choice, I'm choosing to expand or to limit my contribution to the music of the world.

Questions to ponder:

1.  How many chances to be kind have you had today?  Yesterday?
How many did you take advantage of?

2.  What are some of the kindest acts that you've ever seen?

3.  How does kindness affect you when you receive it?

For further thought:

Kindness may be achieved by all, rich
and poor, learned and illiterate. 
Brilliance of mind and capacity
for deep thinking have rendered
great service to humanity, but
by themselves they are impotent
to dry a tear or mend a broken heart.

unknown

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