LET’S PRACTISE KINDNESS

Kindness is very important in life – no matter who or what you are, demonstrating kindness in all walks of life is important!!!  In order to show kindness to others, we need to have a level of vulnerability ourselves!!!  We need to be capable of opening up to the emotional, physical, psychological, sociological or religious needs of people whenever we are called upon to do so!!!  We expect to be treated kindly but are sometimes afraid, hesitant to treat others kindly, perhaps because we feel that the kindness we manifest in some way or another may sometimes be rejected, misunderstood, or just taken for granted!!!  Some people are innately kind, kindness comes naturally to them and when we reflect deeply we realize that kindness is a beautiful thing!!!  However, people who are basically kind are more often than not, always hurt, their kindness is taken for weakness or their kindness is taken for granted causing untold pain in mind and heart!!! Sometimes when you think it doesn’t matter, try keeping this in mind:

“You might think you don’t matter or what you did doesn’t matter in this world; but because of you someone has a favourite mug that you bought them, to drink their tea out of each morning. Someone hears a song on the radio and it reminds them of you. Someone has read a book you recommended and gotten lost in its pages.  Someone’s remembered a joke you told them and smiled to themselves on the bus or while they were walking.  Someone’s tried on a top and felt beautiful because you complimented them on it.  Someone has a memory that makes them grin because it involves you.  Someone now likes herself/himself that little bit more because you made a passing comment that made him/her feel good.  Never think you don’t have an impact, your fingerprints can’t be wiped away from the little marks of kindness that you’ve left behind.”

Extending kindness should not only be manifested personally, it should be manifest in every area of our lives!!!  Our Police Force, particularly the WPC’s should learn to show true concern for human beings who are mistreated, ill-treated in life, especially children!!!  If a child cannot expect care and concern from a Police Officer, it is a very sorry state of affairs the country is in!!!  Thankfully, in the latest episode, both Women PCs were interdicted!!!  The common Sri Lankan consensus is that personnel of the Tri Forces are far more amenable, understanding and ready to lend a helping hand or extend kindness, as opposed to the Police Force!!!  The Police Force sadly is perceived as brutal!!!   Extending kindness does not seem to come naturally or graciously to most Police personnel, even the ladies; it seems that the men in the Police force seem more willing than the ladies to extend kindness and be gracious to the children and the elderly population who are growing in number these days.  It is sad that most Police personnel feel that their uniform gives them the right to be rude and aggressive and throw their weight around.  It would be so much nicer not just from the point of view of the country that they serve but as guardians of the law that they could be looked up to!!!

Kindness is inculcated into every religion in the world today and is one of the main precepts that Lord Buddha laid particular emphasis on!!!  Being a predominantly Buddhist country, why is it that most of our people find it difficult to show kindness, to extend compassion to those who so badly need it???  

It is very disturbing and equally unsettling to open a newspaper and find so much crime and so many areas where different crimes are perpetrated and, going by the newspapers, our Remand Prisons and the Prisons themselves must be overflowing!!!  Should we ask ourselves: ‘Could this all be due to lack of compassion and kindness?’

When we dwell on kindness and compassion, we would do well to remember that one day all of us will be separated from each other and we will miss our conversations of everything and nothing and the dreams that we had!!!  Days, months and years will pass into nothing, then one day our children will see our pictures and ask “Who are these people?” and we will smile with invisible tears because our hearts are touched with remembrance and we will say: “It was them that I had the best days of my life with!!!”  Someday everything will make perfect sense, so for now, laugh at the confusion, smile through the tears and keep reminding yourselves that everything happens for a reason!!!  Respect people who find time for you in their busy schedules, but love those who never look at their schedule when you need them!!!  That is the true essence of kindness and compassion!!!  Spend more time with people who bring out the best in you, not the stress in you!!!

Always be ready to show compassion especially to the weak, the underprivileged; remember that wisdom is often acquired when we stumble, not when we succeed!!!  Our defeats leave us wiser than our triumphs!!! By faith we live, through love, kindness and compassion we serve not only those around us but the whole human race and through patience we understand!!! 

Through the travails of trials we gain wisdom, by sharing we give joy but it is only through serving God we make our life complete!!! Extending one hand to help somebody has more value than joining two hands in prayer!!!

There will always be people in your life who treat you Wrong; be sure to thank them for making you Strong!!! Remember that no candle loses its light while lighting another candle; so never stop sharing and helping others because it makes your life more meaningful!!!  Just remember that every pain teaches us a lesson and every lesson makes us better human beings!!! There is nothing more beautiful than someone who goes out of the way to make life beautiful for others; that is kindness coupled with compassion!!!  I once asked an old sage in India, “Tell me Sir, in which field could I make a great career?”  He said with a smile: “Be a good human being.  There is a huge opportunity in this area and very little competition.”  Ellen DeGeneres said: “I think we need more love in the world.  We need more kindness, more compassion, more joy and more laughter.  I definitely want to contribute to that.”   DO YOU???

 THE VOICE