#Kindness

24 Replies

A friend said recently:  “I always feel better when someone smiles at me. It boosts my mood.”  It was in response to one of my quips and she is absolutely right: a simple smile can make a difference.

An act of kindness can have a major impact on the recipient. And here is the amazing part:  It is free (usually), hygienic, ethical, moral and (usually) legal.  Now is that not a subversive idea?

We spend our lives in pursuit of . . . stuff.  Money, power, recognition, acceptance are lures society spends its time chasing.  Is that a good thing? Actually, it can be good and it could be bad. It all depends on the outcome. But kindness is something each and every one of us has the ability to pass on. It could be as simple as a smile or a handshake or as complicated as necessary to achieve a targeted goal. Kindness does not have a template that one has to follow. It is just being nice to a stranger or a friend. It’s giving up your seat on the bus to someone who looks exhausted. It’s crossing your eyes and smiling at child who is just curious about the world. Kindness is the woman in her 80s who takes dog cookies when she goes out for her daily walk. She always asked the owner if she could give them a cookie and the dogs look for her. Everyone is touched. Kindness.

I wonder if it is a word and an act has gone out of fashion. That would be such a shame. We now have automatic doors so no one has to open a door for another. We have automated cashiers so we don’t even have to talk when we buy groceries. That is so sad. If we lose the desire to perform kindness then we will have lost far too much, perhaps more than we can afford.

A great kindness was done to me recently.  I was having my kitchen counter replaced and so I was without a stove top.  Hence no ability to make a cup a tea. (No, I will not boil water for tea in a microwave!) I love my tea in the morning.  A friend knew this.  She called and told me she was coming over. She arrived with a thermos full of tea.  It was my tea, steeped appropriately. I would have survived a day without a cup of tea but she knew I would miss it.  This simple act of kindness touched me deeply.

A simple smile as you walk down the street can lift the spirits of another. But we have to start. Each and every one of us has the ability to smile but its only true value is when we smile at another. I wonder what the world would be like if more people practice kindness?

We need to be kind to each other.

24 thoughts on “#Kindness”

  1. delphini510

    I love this post of yours and agree with all you say.
    A smile, means so much. The acts of kindness and thoughtfulness you so eloquently describe.
    Value without price tag.
    By the way, we have ” areal life ” cashiers. 😊 .

    miriam

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓
  2. pensitivity101

    What a wonderful post.
    Hubby and I both try to make at last one person smile every day. It’s free and doesn’t hurt. We have seen that a smile completely changes the face of a harassed cashier in the supermarket or a frustrated Mum. We were once asked what we’d done to improve the attitude of a particular shop assistant as she was always miserable. We said nothing, just asked her about her day and her cat! We’ve been away four years and went into that shop. She was still working there and her face broke out into a smile when she saw us. Nice to be remembered.
    A smile has a knock on effect. It does raise your spirits. You stand taller, you embrace the day, you pass it on.
    Kindness, consideration and thoughtfulness are also good tools between people. Helping someone with their shopping, giving a neighbour a lift, keeping the dog under control and cleaning up (today might be difficult if out), all things that don’t cost us money, just a few moments of our time. I remember so well my days in the High Street when the pensioners would come in and I’d make time to have a chat as some of them lived alone and didn’t see a soul from one day to the next.
    We seem to have forgotten the important things. My Mum and Dad called it ‘manners’.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓
  4. Murphy's Law

    And you made me smile this morning my friend! Thank you. Pensitivity101 is absolutely right, it boils down to manners. I believe we’re taught manners, we’re not born with them. Just like being taught to walk or feed ourselves or ride a bike or tie our shoelaces. So what the hell happened to this teaching/learning process? Are we not being taught good manners anymore or are we not learning them?

    Kindness. It’s such a simple easy thing to be kind…..the way we want others to act towards us. “Please”, “Thank you”, “You’re welcome”, “Excuse me”…..how often do you hear those phrases these days?

    You can light up someone’s whole day by simply smiling at them, and the whole process only takes a few seconds. I think that’s a lot of bang for your buck!

    There’s a line in a song that says, “When you’re smiling, the whole world smiles with you”. Try it. You might like it! 🤗😜😉🤓
    🐾Ginger 🐾

    🍀🍀Happy St. Patrick’s Day🍀🍀

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓
  6. scifihammy

    Very nicely said Pam. 🙂 There is still kindness and courtesy out there and it can come from the most unexpected of places. I like to think chivalry is not dead – just yet. 🙂
    In the meantime, keep smiling, and keep writing your Quips to keep Us smiling! 😀

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓
  7. dweezer19

    You are so right Pam. I can see the patients’ expressions change when I call them if I smile and say good morning or i quire how they are. That in turn cheers me up. It’s a win-win situation. Have you watched the show The Kindness Diaries? It’s very sweet.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Google photo

You are commenting using your Google account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.