Kindness

 "The Kindness of Mother Earth" copyright 2011, Caris Cerdwyn, All rights reserved

One of the weekly emails I receive, talked about kindness today.  The writer, Joan Chittester gave quotes from Buddha, the Dalai Lama, the Talmud to name a few.  But I love her words, they are rambling around in my heart and mind and perhaps even settling into my spirit:   

             The whole world changes when we know ourselves. We gentle it. The fruit of self-knowledge is kindness.  Broken ourselves, we bind tenderly the wounds of the other. 

Today, I went to the clinic to see a Rheumatologist.  Now I sometimes have issues in going to the doctor, but this particular doctor was kindness personified from the moment he walked into the room.  I felt myself relax as he listened and asked questions that ran the gamut from medications I take to what kind of music I like to play.  He addressed issues that doctors are sometimes prone to get rather intense about, in a way that let me hear what he was saying instead of how he was saying it.  

Later I went downstairs to have blood drawn.  The young woman who was to draw my blood was also the personification of kindness, as she palpated my arm looking for my veins which are always deep and difficult to find.  She was new at her job, and when she had difficulty she went to her supervisor who drew the blood, getting the vein on the first try.  I wasn't quite brave enough to offer the newbie my arm to poke and prod.  Almost spoke up.  But almost doesn't count.  .



Driving home I felt a profound sense of gratitude.  There have been other times in my life when things turned out differently than today.  It was ok.  Maybe even better than ok.  Gentle doctors and phlebotomists were a wonderful gift.  The past couple of days there have been many kindnesses extended to me, and each one feeds my own ability to be kind to another.


Mother Earth is kind today as well...giving a day here that is cool and breezy and reminds us that autumn is around the corner.  Snuggling under the blanket with my book was a pleasure last night.


Kindness is such an easy thing to give.  Stopping to listen and pay attention and meet a need...
Go practice those random acts today...maybe we'll pass each other on the way.

A Simple Gift

Leaves of Grass, copyright 2011 by Caris Cerdwyn, all rights reserved

"A Child said to me, 'what is grass?' fetching it to me with full hands;
How could I answer the child?....I do not know what it is anymore than he..." 
                                           Walt Whitman from Leaves of Grass

That little patch of lawn outside my window, carefully cut, kept neat and contained has lost its sense of wildness, though if it were left alone for just a few months, it would regain its original identity fully.  Still, those leaves of grass are home to more forms of life than the naked eye can see, or even a canine nose can track. 

Some time ago, I worked as a chaplain at a nursing home.  One day one of the activity assistants asked a circle of women what they missed most.  Imagine that...imagine being there in a home for elders, toward the end of your life, when loss has come at you from every direction imaginable.  Losing your home, losing a spouse, outliving relatives and friends, watching your body change, losing some of your basic functions, so much loss.  A question such as that one would be likely to bring a flood of emotion.  But one woman looked up and said:  I miss going barefoot, walking in the grass, feeling it tickle my toes.

So the activity assistant got some boxes and planted grass, watched it sprout.  By that time the women had forgotten the question and were surprised to see her bring a box of grass and sit on the floor beside the woman who had missed going barefoot.  Socks and shoes were removed and I doubt that a soft blanket of grass ever felt so wonderful to anyone on the planet.  such kindnesses we humans are capable of offering. 

Perhaps the generals and political leaders in our world should be told this story, and then go walking barefoot together on a lush, green lawn.  And be reminded of the simple sweetness of life, the kindnesses beneath our feet and above our heads and at our sides.  Perhaps peace could be found there in the kindness.