be kind

“Three things in human life are important: the first is to be kind; the second is to be kind; and the third is to be kind.”

                              Henry James

 “Do your little bit of good where you are; it's those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.”

                              Desmond Tutu

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Where did it go?

It must be hiding some place?

Perhaps it is under the desk in the White House

Or ensconced in some back row in Congress

Perhaps it is hiding behind the pulpit a church

Maybe, just maybe, there is a webpage someplace

Where it is to be abundantly found

But kindness seems to have left the building!

I find far too little of it left in my soul

Replaced instead by outrage

And a desire to attack and overwhelm

With the brilliance of my rhetoric, with the force of my anger

Where or where is love

Where is kindness

Where are those little bits of good, put together?

They are there, I believe

Those little acts of kindness

Kindness is in the hands of a older farm widow

Who knits shawls and blankets for people who are struggling

Kindness is in the help given, freely and without question, by an aging farmer

Who gives of his time and his skills to help in so many practical ways

It is in the gentle counsel of the woman everyone calls when life caves in

Counsel given in the context of great trial (cancer) within her own family

It is given through the hands of nurses

Through the listening ears of healers

Those “little bits of good” do litter the universe

And the tipping point is there

That place where those acts of kindness overwhelm the world

But it takes us all

All of our little acts

All of those brief moments

So today

Let us try to be kind

And no matter how today turns out

Remember there is always

tomorrow