A Word For the Season

Dear Reader,

We have just finished the Thanksgiving holiday here in the States. It is one of my favorite holidays, for many reasons – it is a time to be with family and friends, sharing stories, laughter and good food, and it is a time for gratitude. And indeed, I felt gratitude everywhere last week.

And yet…

There is a different word that has been dominating my thinking lately. That word is…

Kindness.

To be very honest, I have been feeling like kindness is something we have been lacking in our world lately. Every time we demonize other people while knowing next to nothing about them, mainly because of our own fears, we are showing a lack of kindness. Every time we judge ourselves harshly, based on a story that we have come to believe about ourselves, we are showing a lack of kindness. Every time we fail to recognize that we are all in this together, we are showing a lack of kindness.

Seth Godin says that there is a shortage these days of people who care, and I agree.

So what is kindness?

Kindness is acknowledgement of our humanity, our own and others, and all that goes with it – our imperfections, our frailties, our fears, and our tremendous capacity to love, if only given a chance.

I was given a gentle reminder, and an opportunity to practice kindness, just this morning. I am writing at a Starbucks (yes, I am a “coffee creative” as my wife calls me) and earlier, with my laptop closed and one sentence written in a notebook, an older man with a bushy beard and a worn baseball hat came up to me and asked “Is that your laptop?”

I said “Yes.”

He followed up, “Could you look up some directions for me? I need to pick up a friend on X street, and I’m not sure where it is.”

My very first response was a tightening in my chest, perhaps from the interruption, and also from the fear that he would ask for something more than I wanted to give.

Having felt my inner response, I thought “I don’t want to choose that,” and said “Sure, why not?”

I opened up my laptop, brought up Mapquest, and found the directions he needed, which he wrote down. Off he went to meet his friend, his errand a little easier, and I went back to writing, feeling good about my choice.

Although… I did have one more inner reaction, and that was to say to myself “Should it have been that difficult to show a little kindness to a fellow human being?” Then I realized that in asking the question, I was certainly not being kind to myself. So I let it go.

Thank you, to the kind stranger who trusted me this morning and gave me an opportunity to practice kindness.

Dear reader, let’s be kind as often as we can, even when we resist at first. And let’s include ourselves in that kindness.

Just imagine if the whole world was 1% more kind, 1% more often, how different things might be?

I honor your loving heart,

John