The Kindness Legacy

There are many inspirational quotes and signs that one can see quite often featuring the act of kindness. I personally enjoy reading all of them, because I use it as a reminder of what I should be doing on a consistent basis. For me kindness can begin with the smallest of actions, such as a simple smile towards another person that one may be crossing paths with. On an early morning a few weeks ago, it was a cloudy and misty start to the day as I was getting into my truck and a lady walked right by me on what appeared to be her morning walk. I stopped and smiled and said good morning to her. She in turn, just kept walking right by me without any response.  As I drove off, I smiled and chuckled to myself as I came up with a couple of excuses for why she didn't reply back. What I have learned over time is that I still have to continue with what I value in this world, like continuing to be kind towards others without having any expectations. Usually, over ninety percent of the time people will respond positively and smile back in those instances. The other levels of kindness can also take many different forms, from donating money towards a worthy cause close to your heart, to the donation of your time in volunteering for an organization or a special effort. All of these examples combined can speak to the possibility of what we would like to define in our lives as a cornerstone of our essential values. It was also no coincidence that as I was writing this, I happened to see an interview on television where a young boy in the south eastern part of the country had been given a dollar by his father for getting good grades in school. He ended up encountering a man who happened to be praying outside a diner early in the morning and the boy thought he was homeless and offered him the dollar. As it turned out, the man was shocked by the young boy's actions and he proceeded to tell him that he was the owner of a sporting goods store, where the alarm had gone off and he came to check on his establishment super early that day. It occurred so early, that he had not paid attention to what clothes he threw on before he left the house. It was a bit of a mismatch of clothing and then he realized that it all added up as how he could have been mistaken for a homeless individual. The man ended up buying the young man breakfast at the diner and when he found out that the only money that boy had he was willing to give to him, it made his heart full. Consequently, he invited his new found friend to a shopping spree at his store and gave him anything he could grab in 45 seconds. The interview ended with both of them smiling and speaking about their new found friendship which ultimately featured how that act of kindness not only brought them together, as they also were able to share the story with the rest of the world. This story brought further validation of the importance of this action and how one never knows how deeply it could touch another person. If you already put this action into practice or are contemplating how you can make some small changes to further enrich your life, I highly recommend you taking those steps towards adding to your kindness legacy. We cannot underestimate its power and while the world is watching to see what is not going right, it is a great counterbalance towards showing that same audience of what is going quite well among everyday folks around us. 

“Kindness is a language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.”
― Mark Twain