Acts of Kindness I’d like to share a story. The other day, I went to a local hospital to pick up some medicine. And I received this medicine every month, so it’s a relatively straightforward process.
But on my paper, the QR code has been removed. So, my prescription cannot be adequately processed. But I was unaware of this at all, so I arrive at the hospital to pick up my medicine.
Now, you can appreciate that hospitals are very, very chaotic places. And I’m sure, like me, most people don’t want to be there, because hospitals evoke all sorts of emotions, don’t they?
Terror, pain, suffering, anxiety, whatever you can imagine, it’s omnipresent in a hospital. Reminds us of perhaps our own mortality, whatever it is. So, I get to the front of the line, and I announce I’m here to pick up my prescription.
And of course, the order cannot be processed at all. And the man in front of me, I happened to know him. So I ask him, how are you?
Now I remember that about a month ago, he told me that his mother was quite ill. So I said, how’s your mother? And he said, my mother’s gone to heaven.
Oh my gosh, the poor soul. So I immediately tried to comfort him. He said, no, no, no, I’m fine.
So I’m trying to extend some kindness to him. In this chaotic work schedule that he has to have, because there are people everywhere, as you can appreciate. And he says to me, oh, this won’t process, let me help you.
Please go sit down. So I go and sit down and I get my notebook out and I begin to work. And about 10 minutes later, he arrives in front of me with my medicine.
And he says, next month, you’ve got to go back to the doctor. But he spent a disordered amount of time to help me receive my medicine. And I was really, truly taken aback.
He had extended such an enormous amount of kindness to me. So I then went immediately to, I think there was a Starbucks something next door and I bought a small gift. But this really means very little, does it?
Because he had already done more than enough. Shocked me. And this got me thinking that I don’t do enough of this.
Now, I have started something in my notebook on a daily basis. I question myself and I put a little note to myself, act of kindness. So what is your act of kindness today?
I try to open the door for people and be gracious and do this and that. But it really made me think if more and more of us acted in a kind manner, I think the world would be a better place, period. Now, who’s the first person I’m going to be kind to?
Well, obviously myself. I mean, this is the person that I know most intimately, right? I know me.
So when I awake in the morning and say my prayers, and offer my gratitude, I’m also going to say to myself, Leon, you’ve got to be kind to yourself today, which means you’re going to spend five minutes in bed contemplating reality and what’s going
on. You are going to write in a kind manner in your notebook, say your prayers, brush your teeth, shave, and make yourself presentable to the world. You’re going to be kind to you.
And it got me thinking, because gosh, how many people really understand that their private world cannot be extended out into the world unless they and you make an effort to not look disheveled, to try to wear presentable clothes.
And I think the vast majority of people truly are just not kind to themselves. At least, that’s what I see when I look at people. So think about your own kindness.
What kind of kindness after you? What kind of kindness are you going to extend?
So how does kindness help me? Well, firstly, for sure, it affirms the dignity of another person, doesn’t it, if you could use this language, right?
It makes the other person feel special when you hold the door, or perhaps buy a coffee, box of chocolates, flowers, whatever it is, right? It really helps.
And in a way, when they’re having a blue day, hopefully you’ve caught them at that moment, right?
At that special moment, you extend yourself, you know, and in this chaotic mess called life, it makes people realize that there are other human beings just like me, right?
And you think to yourself, if we weren’t intrinsically nice as people, we could never have a society. I was reading the other day that our society is, in effect, the net result of the combined efforts of all of us.
So a society like Taiwan, for instance, a clean, lovely, presentable place, is the net result of all the efforts of people where some place like Nigeria, which is perhaps an awful example, but it’s true. It’s a chaotic mess for the most part.
People are killing each other. You have ethnic tension. You have religious tension.
So obviously, the collective of the people is not working there, is it? And I guess that is the question, isn’t it? So you can see how we have to be totally careful of what could happen in a society, right?
So, try to put a note of kindness into your notebook, and then begin to reflect. What can I do today as an act of kindness? What can I do to bring forth a little bit of joy to another human being?
Because, it seems to me, there is lots of people that are frustrated and angry and fearful, and all the rest of it, and a little bit of kindness that you can extend by, like I said, opening a door or giving a piece of chocolate or a smile even, to
people, can radically alter how people feel. And I think if we think of ourselves as kind beings, intrinsically, I’m not first and foremost concerned with me, my ego, what I need. I’m concerned with we, what we can offer.
Then, perhaps, potentially, we’re going to make the world a little bit more pleasant, a little bit better place, and we certainly must be on this path now, right?
And then, if I could just digress very quickly, you think to yourself, if you could be kind to other human beings, you certainly could be kind to, let’s say, animals, mosquitoes, cockroaches, dogs, cats, chickens, whatever it is, and I’m not a
vegetarian at all. But I most assuredly think that we must be kind to Gaia and to Mother Earth, because then it will benefit all of us, won’t it? So, think about kindness.
Think about how it can perhaps, just in your own small way, it can make the Earth a better place. And you know what they say, you know what they say, an act of kindness can help all of us because of critical thinking, and critical thinking is great.
You take care. God bless. Bye-bye.