kindness

Starting now.

Posted on by Shari Swanson

What tools do we need before we start to improve the world? What are we waiting for? Perhaps we are waiting for extra money or time. Perhaps we are waiting for retirement. Perhaps we are waiting to get all our own issues squared away first before we start thinking about helping someone else with theirs. Perhaps we are waiting for someone to ask us for help.

But consider Anne Frank. Forced to live in hiding to avoid the Nazi round-up and murder of Jews, she had little contact with the outside world. She, herself, was in mortal danger around the clock. She was just a kid, really, someone we think of helping rather than being the helper. And yet her attitude was so full of optimism and hope, it continues to shine now, decades later, lighting a weary world.

What a difference an attitude makes! She didn’t wait for the right time or resources. She didn’t wait until she could have a huge impact on the world. She didn’t wait until she was old or famous or wealthy. She didn’t even wait until she was safe. She started right then with what she had. A cheerful disposition, a concern for her family and the others in hiding with her, a willingness to step forward and try to make the world a better place.

What can you do to improve the world? Isn’t it wonderful that you can start right now?

Shining light in dark places.

Posted on by Shari Swanson

Miep Gies was a young office worker when she hid and supported Anne Frank and her family, protecting them from Nazis and the danger of being sent to a concentration camp. After Anne and her family were betrayed and captured, Miep collected Anne’s diaries and eventually returned them to Anne’s father, Otto, who survived the war. That diary has been read by millions of people now, inspiring acts of heroism and showing, in a very intimate way, the horror of WWII as viewed through the eyes of an innocent, complex, lovely, vibrant girl, Anne.

Miep wasn’t famous or rich or particularly accomplished, yet she managed through her actions to shine a very bright light on hate and replace it with a more powerful portrait of love. Anne, too, wasn’t famous or rich or accomplished, although we can see now how she was a gifted author, but her words have been inspiring and a powerful force against evil in the world.

No matter our position or age or wealth or gender, we each can make a contribution that makes the world more bright.

What is the light you can turn on in a dark room?

Happy day.

Posted on by Shari Swanson

What is one bright thing in your day? One shining star or saving grace? Sometimes the simplest of things can light up our mood and day, and start things in the right direction.

For inspiration, consider this poem:

Success 
by Ralph Waldo Emerson
To laugh often and much;
To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children;
To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends;
To appreciate beauty,
To find the best in others,
To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child,
A garden patch or a redeemed social condition;
To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.
This is to have succeeded.

Happy this day.

Dust you are.

Posted on by Shari Swanson

The world existed before us and will go on after us. That’s a hard thing to wrap our minds around because we see things from our point of view. It’s hard to picture a scenario without ourselves in it. And yet, that day will come. Our chance to make our mark will end. While it seems at first like a very sobering thought, it can be uplifting because it reminds us that we are here now; this is our time to dance, to love, to give, to celebrate, to reach out to the other dust particles like ourselves and do our bit. This is our moment. Let’s make the most of it.

Standing where the light is shining.

Posted on by Shari Swanson

Sometimes, when we feel down, we need to evaluate the input coming into our lives. Are we steeped in negativity? Maybe not just news, but the vitriol that follows it in the comments? The political back and forth can get ugly and pull us down. And then we can think about the friends we surround ourselves with. Are they upbeat, trying to make things better, or always complaining? 

And, while we don’t want to retreat from fighting the good fight or the friends who are going through a rough patch, it’s so easy for people to tear things down, to find the flaws, to make a conflict, and, when we are around that kind of energy constantly, we can feel beaten down. 

But, there is good news to be had, and there are positive people and opportunities to be found. Sometimes we need to focus our attention there, if only for a break from the storm.

Reteaching loveliness.

Posted on by Shari Swanson

You and everyone around you are buds, waiting to fully bloom. Sometimes we need reminders of that fact.

Consider this poem from Galway Kinnell:

Relearning Loveliness

The bud

Stands for all things,

Even for those things that don’t flower,

For everything flowers, from within, of self-blessing:

Though sometimes it is necessary to reteach a thing its loveliness,

To put a hand on the brow

Of the flower,

And retell it in words and in touch,

It is lovely

Until it flowers again from within, of self-blessing.

Love is nearby.

Posted on by Shari Swanson

Sometimes a good walk can change your perspective. Consider these words from Anne Lamott:

My husband said something a few years ago that I often quote: 80% of everything that is true and beautiful can be experienced in any ten minute walk. Even in the darkest and most devastating times, love is nearby if you know what to look for. It does not always appear at first to be lovely, but instead may take the form of a hot mess or a snoring old dog. Or someone you have sworn to never, ever forgive (for a possibly very good reason, if you ask me). But mixed in will also be familiar signs of love: wings, good-hearted people, cats (when they are in the right mood), a spray of wild flowers, a cup of tea. What are we even talking about when we talk of love? What is it?

On a ten minute walk anywhere…, love abounds and abides, flirts and weeps with us. It is there for the asking, which is the easy part. Our lives’ toughest work is in the receiving. Love presents most obviously in babies and kids being cuddled, yet also as patience with annoying humans we live or work with or are. We feel love upon seeing our favorite neighbors and first responders, we see it in fund-raising efforts, peace marches, kindergarten classrooms, gardens. When flowers don’t stir feeling of love in me, something is gumming up the works.

What at first unlovely things do you see around you that are really love? What evidence of love do you see on your walk? In your day? In your home?

Love is everywhere. We just sometimes need to make sure to notice.

Love like water.

Posted on by Shari Swanson

We hear we should fight fire with fire or get down in the gutter and fight dirty with the rest of them, but is this the best way? Won’t everyone just be hurt? Won’t our young lose role models for the importance of virtue?

What of other, softer, ways to resist?

Consider these words from Richard Rudd:

The Softening

Softness is one of the great secrets of all spiritual practice. 

When we become soft, we become like water. 

We let life come to us. 

We trust in its flow, and we allow ourselves to be taken in whichever direction it chooses. 

This is true power because it comes from love, and love is the softest thing in the universe, and yet it is the most powerful. 

When you soften your attitude to yourself, to others, and to life, you release the natural wisdom that lies within you. 

Your body softens, your thoughts soften, and your heart softens. 

Through softness, you find clarity and purpose without needing to force anything. 

Your life becomes a gentle unfolding rather than a constant battle.

For friendship.

Posted on by Shari Swanson

How lucky we are to have friends, true friends, who are in our lives just for the delight in it, for the compatibility of spirits, for joy, for shared experience, for knowing in this great big world someone gets us.

Enjoy this poem by Kahlil Gibran:

And a youth said, Speak to us of Friendship. 
    And he answered, saying: 
    Your friend is your needs answered. 
    He is your field which you sow with love and reap with thanksgiving. 
    And he is your board and your fireside.
    For you come to him with your hunger, and you seek him for peace. 

    When your friend speaks his mind you fear not the “nay” in your own mind, nor do you withhold the “ay.” 
    And when he is silent your heart ceases not to listen to his heart; 
    For without words, in friendship, all thoughts, all desires, all expectations are born and shared, with joy that is unacclaimed. 
    When you part from your friend, you grieve not; 
    For that which you love most in him may be clearer in his absence, as the mountain to the climber is clearer from the plain. 
    And let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit. 
    For love that seeks aught but the disclosure of its own mystery is not love but a net cast forth: and only the unprofitable is caught. 

    And let your best be for your friend. 
    If he must know the ebb of your tide, let him know its flood also. 
    For what is your friend that you should seek him with hours to kill? 
    Seek him always with hours to live. 
    For it is his to fill your need but not your emptiness. 
    And in the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures. 
    For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.