IF YOU WANT TO REAP A HARVEST, START SOWING (WHAT YOU WANT TO REAP)....

If you want to live in a kinder, more compassionate world, start quietly sowing seeds of kindness. If you're sick of niggardly behaviour, stop practising separation.

Acts of kindness are steps into the unknown. The beauty of them is that they can be as small or as large as you feel comfortable with. No matter what they are, genuine acts of kindness increase feelings of wellbeing in both the giver and the receiver. They are an act of Connection, satisfying one the most basic of human needs.

One unexpected act of kindness, one word of encouragement, can brighten someone's day, and will be paid forward to others you'll never meet. It could even change a life forever. You never know, and that's the glory of it. 

 

What's even more extraordinary about giving kindness is – a) Kindness works best when you do it selfishly, for the feeling of freedom and space it gives yourself; and – b) it need not cost you a cent. 

 

I wanted to visit a friend who was due to have surgery in a small private hospital in the Adelaide seaside suburb of Glenelg, not an area I know well. I caught public transport to the main street, thinking there would be signage on the streets to the hospital. Alas, I was wrong about that, and got hopelessly lost. I stopped a young couple who were walking their dog and asked for directions. They didn't know either. After wandering for another 10 minutes a car drove up behind me and honked. It was the young man I'd spoken to earlier. He'd gone home, looked up the map, and come looking for me. He drove me to the hospital. I don't know his name, but his kindness made the day for both of us.

Have you ever been in line to get coffee and the person in front of you pays for your bill? It makes you feel pretty great, doesn't it? And it makes you want to pass that feeling on to someone else, like I'm doing with you now. The pond-ripple effect of just one small act of kindness can make a positive difference in so many people’s lives! Today, I'm asking you to take the time to do something nice for someone else, and the happiness will continue to spread. Join me by doing something small just to make someone’s day that little bit brighter. 

 

[Slip Into Spring/The Harvest – Bill Whelan – 5:01]

When you think about a random act of kindness you can do today, remember these 3 things: 

 

1) Anyone can make a difference. 8-year-old Katelyn Indelicato heard about a local man who was shot and paralysed as an innocent bystander in a drive-by shooting. She wanted to help him any way she could. She emptied her own piggy bank and raised money to pay for a physical therapy session for a complete stranger who was going through a tough time. “Anyone can make a difference,” Katelyn said. “You can be more than what you are right now. You can do more than what you’ve already done.” Can't you?

12 years ago my daughter had collapsed with undiagnosed pneumonia and was near death in a coma in Melbourne's St. Vincent's Hospital. I drove from country Gippsland in the motor home I owned at the time and was desperately looking for a parking spot. Found one! In my highly disturbed state, though, I misjudged the manoeuvre and wiped a wing mirror off a very expensive 4WD. Flustered, I was struggling to write a note for the owner when he turned up. He took one look at his vehicle, a second look at my face, and said quietly, "Are you going to the hospital?" I nodded. He said, "Forget this. Go."

I've not seen him since, but I doubt I shall ever forget him, and what he did for me that day.

2) A single small act of goodwill has the potential to make a huge difference. In 1963, Edward Lorenz presented a hypothesis to the New York Academy of Science: A butterfly, he said, could flap its wings and set molecules of air in motion, which would move other molecules of air, in turn moving more molecules of air—eventually capable of starting a cyclone on the other side of the planet. He was laughed out of the conference, his hypothesis preposterous. More than thirty years later, The Butterfly Effect was found to be authentic, accurate, and viable. 

Just like the flap of a butterfly’s wings can cause a cyclone, an act of kindness by one person can make the world a more liveable place. How many times in your life have you received an unexpected “Thank-you” note for something kind you hardly remember doing? Not often, I'll bet. You can change that today. A short note or email to say “Thank you” to someone you met recently can engender a tidal wave of good feelings that may be out of all proportion to the original act. That's the multiplier power of Gratitude. And you can start it all by yourself. 

3) Don’t forget to pass it on. It feels so great when someone goes out of their way to do something nice for you, doesn’t it? Pass that feeling on by doing a good deed for someone else because kindness is like a snowball that’s rolling down a hill. Each unselfish act or word is another snowflake that greets the others… creating something much larger than itself in the process. 

 

POSTSCRIPT: I think the world has quite enough arseholes who blatantly seek some payoff for their “good deeds”. You can multiply your kindnesses exponentially by making absolutely sure that as few people as possible know what you've done. If the kindness you're giving cannot possibly be repaid, try to organise it so that the receiver will never know who the kindness came from. I'm not entirely sure how this phenomenon works, but maybe by keeping yourself anonymous, you throw the focus of what you've done onto the deed itself, rather than the doer.

And how you feel afterwards can be your test of your authenticity. Arseholes give themselves away when they whine something like ....."After all I've done for him/her!!!" If you feel any hollowness, you'll know your seeds were sterile, and you've got some self-awareness to work on. If you feel a buzz of aliveness, you'll know the seeds you've sown will germinate, grow and yield a harvest.

I know of no better feeling than that.