Kindness Includes Everything

 Kindness is everything to means realizing we are not separate from each other, none of us can fully exist without each other.  We are all interconnected. I believe it's actually quite easy to be kind. It's all those small things that add up. This for me is and has been a lifestyle for so long that it's hard for me to identify "moments" of kindness because it's simply how I live each day to the best of my ability. Whether it is doing the dishes or finishing and folding the laundry for my elderly housemates (lovingly referred to as The Golden Girls), leaving the close up parking spaces for people who really need them, giving someone the extra cash they need in line at the grocery story, sharing bubbles with strangers on public transportation to make them smile, hugging homeless people and sharing conversation, etc.
What has helped keep me rooted in kindness is to see the other in myself and myself in the other and to realize there is no other. <3 And also to think, how would I feel if I was in that person's shoes right now? How would I want to be treated or spoken to? And the kindness comes back around. Just last week, I learned my Dad's real story and in learning about who he really was, not the failure people thought of but a man with a 140+ IQ who had served in secret operations and was forbidden to speak his truth. That secrecy killed him. He attempted suicide several times & died when I was 22 never having the chance to say who he really was.  (that's a whole nother story) As you can imagine learning these details was difficult, though also heart/mind/soul expanding. I was feeling emotionally raw. A new friend, busy with his own work & PhD applications dropped everything and at 1130 at night came over to my house to sit and listen and hug me.  (I've recently relocated to Washington DC and have some friends, but am still creating my support system)  I cannot even describe how much his kindness helped. With his loving heart I was able to fully process the experience of learning about my Dad. This is all to say, yes, be kind. It includes Everything. Hugs from my heart to yours!

 Wishing you wholeness and healing. You Have lost a lot, but are so aware of your blessings. May that awareness give you strength and peace!

Hugs right back to you!!!!  Wishing you much strength and love on your journey!!!! 

Peace and kindness to you Kristin.  And don't we lose so very much by insisting on keeping our nation safe and secure against other nations, insisting on secrets, walls and armaments, instead of a world of nations and companies innovating & freely cooperating for the greater good.  

 At the practical level: HOW ABOUT VEGETARIANISM? as an abiding way to show KINDNESS.

Devendra Oza