“Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.”
A week set aside just to be kind. How great is that? A time to focus on being kind outwardly and yes, to be kind inwardly. I believe when we learn to be kind and gentle to ourselves that kindness comes so easily in expression to others.
In her book “Invisible Acts of Power” Caroline Myss tells stories by different people who sent her their stories of people who had impacted their lives.
Caroline said she sat and read over 1,200 stories from people after she had asked her core group of followers to respond to that question: Who or what has had a big influence on your life? She said after reading all of the stories her life was forever changed. She came to realize how important our day-to-day interactions are to others. It is said that one simple act of kindness causes a ripple effect – kindness expands from one heart to the next with ripples of quiet joy. One of the stories will forever stay with me from the book. A man was walking and heading home all the while planning out a way that he could commit suicide. He had been so despondent lately and could think of no way out of his circumstances. He was nearing home and he had a plan in place. Then, as he stepped off of a curb, a young woman driving by looked at him and smiled and waved with happiness.
He stopped and found tears running down his face. His heart responded and suddenly his plan just fell apart and he went out to a friend’s house instead and had a nice evening.
How do we know? How can we ever see the impact of those small simple acts of kindness: how far will the ripple extend? How many lives will be touched? What does our kindness truly give to the world? Of this I am certain ~ we underestimate how far it does go and how much impact we can have simply by being kind.
I’m up for the challenge to meet each situation with kindness, to meet others’ eyes with a smile, to start the day at work with a smile and compliment to those around me, and to treat each person as if they were the most important person in my world. Let’s do this! And remember the Prayer of St. Frances… make me an instrument of thy peace (and of thy JOY!)
“Remember there’s no such thing as a small act of kindness every act creates a ripple with no logical end” – Scott Adams
With love and much kindness, Carol Gadbaw
