Practice Loving Kindness and Acceptance: Plant the Seeds that Will Continue to Grow.

  It has been said that the best way to breed less prejudice and less content is to practice loving compassion and acts of kindness especially towards those that appear differently.  I have always, since I can remember had connection to those that are more vulnerable either people or animals. Especially since the loss of my son that I have even become more sensitive to those that are hurting or that have been through something tragic in their lives.  I can immediately sense this now because I have chosen to slow down and really take everything in and connect with people.

  It is the small things in which  that we do that can make someone’s day a little brighter and perhaps help them begin to feel like this old world really is not that bad after all. It doesn’t matter where we are, we can make a difference. It can be at the grocery store, the gas station or just passing on the streets that the difference that a smile or a “hello” can lift someone. Too many times I see people just flying through life not even aware of their surroundings. Chasing that American dream and forgetting what life really means which is connections and empathy towards others.

  When we are raising our children or have children in our lives that even may not be ours, we as the adults can plant the seeds of empathy, compassion and self-reliance. A healthy sense of entitlement is so important for a child to feel, not an over sense of entitlement or lack of entitlement or self-loathing.  This is a tricky balance but we as the adults can set the examples.

  A story that I can provide as an example is when my son was 4. We were at this little store and I looked across the street after hearing this crash that sounded like a bunch of crushing cans. Well that is sort of what it was. A homeless man was pushing a cart full of aluminum cans and it turned over spilling all of them. He was older and feeble, so I looked at Brad and said “come on lets go help him.”  So we did. I remember his little hands picking the cans up one at a time and the man saying over and over “thank you” and “God bless you”. The man smiled and shook my son’s hand and we went on about our day. Brad asked me questions as to why he was pushing a cart with cans and why his clothes were dirty. So this is how I explained it.  I told him that some people in this life have it harder than others. Sometimes there are people that are sick and cannot get the help they need because there are too many others that need help too. So it up to people like us that have a “good” life to help those that do not. And then maybe by what we did today more people will begin to do the same. He was quiet for a few moments as I knew he was thinking about what I had said.  Then with a sweet little voice, he said “l like helping people it makes them happy.” I said “exactly.”   I always just taught him kindness without preaching and telling him stories, but by actual demonstrations of helping those in need. It was when he was 15 that I knew it must have reached inward to him as he chose  St. Nicholas for his conformation name. He came to me and said, “ I like St. Nicholas because he is the saint of giving, and when I give to others that is when I am the happiest.”  Words cannot describe what I felt as a mother that day, but with humility I knew that I was not the only one responsible for this, but also The Divine above.

 Be a light to others and plant some seeds that will cultivate the root systems of loving kindness and acceptance of others.  What will continue to manifest is a continual spread of a loving vine that will wrap around others and offer peace, hope and love that will begin to cover up prejudice, hate and malcontent.