My Kind Lady
Kindness - The most essential quality the world is in need of today. It is kindness which allows you to empathize with someone, sympathize with few others and most importantly makes you love and as the saying goes " Make love not war" !! (well I may have replaced the word 'peace' with 'love' here:P)
Now who really inspired me to write this post is my mother who is kindness personified.
So below are few things that I have observed and learnt from her.
1) Keep a bird feeder in your garden.
To have a home and a small beautiful garden in front of it where lots of birds come chirping is a very simple and lovely dream everyone can harbour. Keeping a bird feeder filled with grains ensures that the birds, squirrels, ants, cats have a guaranteed meal and also makes them keep visiting you and the chirps can surely uplift your mood if you are feeling low.
2) Offer water to street vendors.
You often hear them patrolling the streets trying to market their products by shouting at the top of their voices. Scorching Sun, heavy hand-pushed trolleys, shut doors and un-interested buyers are their so called source of motivation to keep coming back. The least you can do when you hear their shout next time is call and offer them some water and a smile perhaps? The gratitude they show for such a simple act of kindness from you is beyond words to explain and does make your day.
3) Give away that excess paper stack for free
Ahh! Now this pinches us a little doesn't it? We stack our old newspapers for months together only in the hope of getting a good pocket money out of it but why don't we think of giving up on one such income and instead help them kabaadi-walas keep their pocket money instead?
4) Give books along with clothes to the needy
Identify if there are kids in your neighbourhood who know how to read and donate them books as well whenever you are giving away your old clothes. Stress the importance of reading to them and if you cannot give books keep a reading session for them where you read out must-know classics or a few inspiring stories to them. May not be now, but I'm sure someday they will return to thank you for this :)
5) Read out the newspaper to your maid
Your maid may or may not be educated. She may or may not be interested in current affairs but regardless of these, make sure you spare at least 10 minutes everyday to read out the newspaper to her and make her aware of the current affairs. Make her aware of her rights and duties and be sure that you've in turn educated her entire family in the process.
6) Do not throw excess food, offer it to the stray dogs instead
We are never guaranteed that offering excess food to people (how much ever needy they might appear) goes down well with them. And wasting food is almost equivalent to a criminal act! So the solution to it is to offer the excess food to that lean dog in your road whose ribs you can count and in turn make a loyal friend out of it which greets you everyday by wagging its tail at 35wags/minute and guards your house when you are not around ! :)
The Dalai Lama has said "Be Kind whenever possible. It is always possible", so be kind, in fact throw kindness around like confetti !The above is just few ways in which you can be kind but they have been religiously followed by my mother and I have seen the huge positive difference she has made to the lives that she has touched. That makes her not just my kind lady but my kinda lady too and I hope that I always remember to be kind in my life.
Now who really inspired me to write this post is my mother who is kindness personified.
So below are few things that I have observed and learnt from her.
1) Keep a bird feeder in your garden.
To have a home and a small beautiful garden in front of it where lots of birds come chirping is a very simple and lovely dream everyone can harbour. Keeping a bird feeder filled with grains ensures that the birds, squirrels, ants, cats have a guaranteed meal and also makes them keep visiting you and the chirps can surely uplift your mood if you are feeling low.
2) Offer water to street vendors.
You often hear them patrolling the streets trying to market their products by shouting at the top of their voices. Scorching Sun, heavy hand-pushed trolleys, shut doors and un-interested buyers are their so called source of motivation to keep coming back. The least you can do when you hear their shout next time is call and offer them some water and a smile perhaps? The gratitude they show for such a simple act of kindness from you is beyond words to explain and does make your day.
3) Give away that excess paper stack for free
Ahh! Now this pinches us a little doesn't it? We stack our old newspapers for months together only in the hope of getting a good pocket money out of it but why don't we think of giving up on one such income and instead help them kabaadi-walas keep their pocket money instead?
4) Give books along with clothes to the needy
Identify if there are kids in your neighbourhood who know how to read and donate them books as well whenever you are giving away your old clothes. Stress the importance of reading to them and if you cannot give books keep a reading session for them where you read out must-know classics or a few inspiring stories to them. May not be now, but I'm sure someday they will return to thank you for this :)
5) Read out the newspaper to your maid
Your maid may or may not be educated. She may or may not be interested in current affairs but regardless of these, make sure you spare at least 10 minutes everyday to read out the newspaper to her and make her aware of the current affairs. Make her aware of her rights and duties and be sure that you've in turn educated her entire family in the process.
6) Do not throw excess food, offer it to the stray dogs instead
We are never guaranteed that offering excess food to people (how much ever needy they might appear) goes down well with them. And wasting food is almost equivalent to a criminal act! So the solution to it is to offer the excess food to that lean dog in your road whose ribs you can count and in turn make a loyal friend out of it which greets you everyday by wagging its tail at 35wags/minute and guards your house when you are not around ! :)
The Dalai Lama has said "Be Kind whenever possible. It is always possible", so be kind, in fact throw kindness around like confetti !The above is just few ways in which you can be kind but they have been religiously followed by my mother and I have seen the huge positive difference she has made to the lives that she has touched. That makes her not just my kind lady but my kinda lady too and I hope that I always remember to be kind in my life.
My kinda lady :)
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