Reflection
Kindness enhances generosity and balances and counters selfishness. It applies not just to relationships with other people but extends to animals, plants, and Earth. Kindness is not a quid pro quo endeavor. It gives freely without expecting anything in return. This means being generous with one’s presence, time, and money. Kindness can be a healing balm in everyday life. Few of us would describe ourselves as unkind, yet wehave to admit that we often may miss the mark on this. Kindness is very susceptible to omission. We need to take care that sometimes we are not simply too self-absorbed to notice that we are not being kind.
Adapted from Spirituality and Practice
Prayer
May I treat all in the spirit of kindness.
Action
Try to be aware of the needs of others and respond with kindness. Practice what are considered common acts of courtesy. Treat animals and plants gently.
Suggested Reading
Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.
Ephesians 4:32
A tree is known by its fruit; a man by his deeds. A good deed is never lost; he who sows courtesy reaps friendship, and he who plants kindness gathers love.
Saint Basil
Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust, and hostility to evaporate.
Albert Schweitzer
When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people.
Abraham Joshua Heschel
No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.
Aesop
Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.
Mark Twain
There is no need for temples, no need for complicated philosophies. My brain and my heart are my temples; my philosophy is kindness.
Dalai Lama
It’s not our job to play judge and jury, to determine who is worthy of our kindness and who is not. We just need to be kind, unconditionally and without ulterior motive, even – or rather, especially – when we’d prefer not to be.
Josh Radnor
Kindness and politeness are not overrated at all. They’re underused.
Tommy Lee Jones
Be a rainbow in someone else’s cloud.
Maya Angelou
t’s nice to be important, but it’s more important to be nice.
Author Unknown