Kindess works

 While eating my pomegranate pop-tart and drinking a cup of coffee, I, as I often do, had the radio on tuned to NPR. The story was a first person report on a woman who was traveling with "Doctors without Borders" and their work in the Mediterranean Sea. 

They came across a small wooden boat with 167 migrants who were cold, hungry, thirsting, afraid; the Doctors without Borders brought the migrants on board and provided food and blankets.  Nothing out of the norm there.....is what one would expect. Then the reporter said, "and they also shared smiles and hugs which most likely were the first moments of kindness these people had received in weeks and months of their journey." 

There is very much that is troubling, terrorizing and tumultuous  in our world; the horrors of the Hamas attack on Israel, this era of refugees and identity rights and debates, addiction, deaths of despair, loneliness, violence in the rhetoric of our leaders and the shootings in our homes, communities, neighborhoods.  How many times do we say "something needs to be done, we have to do something."

I am not back lit as I type this nor is this an embodied Hallmark card. I do believe we are called to do what we can in our corners of the world.  I believe action builds on action and change occurs, the issue is what kind of actions? Life affirming or fear-filled division.

Along with "Sally, do you know how loud you are?" when I was on an angry rant, my mother would frequently start to list to me the Fruits of the Spirit: peace, joy, forbearance, love and so forth or she would just remind and seek to re-center me with two of the gifts: kind and gentle. Of course, she did this non-judgy and well, gently and kind.  

Did it work? It caused me to pause, catch my breath, cease the rant and...yes, try a more gentle approach. 

Instead of being mean and callous and reveling in our nastiness which sadly leads to far too many likes and clicks, perhaps we could set the intention to "make kindness the norm" and do so in each and every encounter, post, interaction, words and actions.  Hey, it's a worth a try.....something needs to change.....one action of kindness and gentleness leads to another and another and so on and so on.....