Kindness

When I was little my Mom would give me books to read because reading was one of my favorite things to do. It still is. In a lot of the books, she would write down a quote by a Polish author, Kornel Makuszynski. This was the quote,
"Madrym byc, to wielka sztuka, ale grzecnym - jeszcze wieksza!" That has stuck with me since childhood. I think of it often.
It basically means, it's a great thing to be smart, but to be kind is even greater. I grew up admiring people like Mother Teresa and others that would practice kindness.
I am not saying that I am the nicest person out there, what I am saying is that people that do good, impress me. And I try to do my part.
People say that there are givers and takers in this world. I have always been a giver, not always the best thing to be but I can't help it. Doing something for others, walking that extra mile, gives me some kind of personal satisfaction I guess. What I have learned is that many people do not give back.
Even people that I used to consider friends and gave freely to, of my time and things would turn out to be unworthy of the attention in the end.
But that's ok, that's life. Many ups and downs.
It's still disappointing of course when you have a friend that you care about and you show them appreciation and you get back nothing or even worse, some sort of betrayal. But you have to give anyways, because it is the right thing to do, at least for me.
And then sometimes you come across complete strangers that help you out in situations when you least expect it. Life is full of wonderful surprises like that.
I love when people practice random acts of kindness, it gives one hope in humanity.
Somehow, someway, we are all connected, I've had glimpses of that realization a few times. It might seem impossible that we are all connected, but we are.
It's not always easy to remember this, I forget it all the time. But still........
♥

By the way if you want some inspiration to practice some kindness yourself, I came across this