Daily Mood Quote
Day 229 – January 3, 2012
“Kindness is a language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.”
~Mark Twain
Yesterday morning, I looked outside and realized we probably had enough snow on the ground to shovel. But, figuring it was a holiday Monday as New Year's Day was on a Sunday this year, my husband and I did not rush out into the suddenly frigid January air, to shovel driveways. We had a slower start to our day and wanted to begin this New Year by spending the first couple of days at home, just enjoying the time together with our children. The holiday season this year was a rough one, punctuated by extreme, frenetic busyness (visiting family out-of-town) because of a death, funeral and the Christmas holiday. So, we needed some quiet, peaceful time to collect our thoughts and gather our sense of equilibrium again. We decided that we were going to take that time, without regret or remorse... it's how you stay healthy, you know.
Anyway to continue with my snow covered story; I took my lunch dishes to the kitchen sink yesterday and happened to look outside and noticed that someone was shoveling our elderly neighbor's driveway. Normally (for the past two years), my husband and I were doing the shoveling after it snowed, but yesterday was different. Someone we could not recognize (heavy winter outdoor attire), was shoveling our neighbor's driveway. What a pleasant surprise to see someone else stepping up and stepping in to do a kindness, for an 89 year old man who ought not to be shoveling snow. A bit later my husband did get out to shovel our driveway and to his wonderment, our other elderly neighbor's driveway, the one on the other side of the house, was also done (we live in a bit of a “senior sandwich” with older neighbors on each side and us “youngsters” in between). In fact, most of the driveway's in the neighborhood had been cleared. This was awesome we thought; truly a fantastic way to start off the New Year. We were delighted and my husband whistled his way through our driveway in short order.
We have no idea who the mystery shoveler is, but we are thankful for their magnanimous display of neighborly kindness. In fact, I'll bet we were happier than the neighbors who had their driveway's shoveled. BRAVO...You are a true, kind and wonderful person.... whoever you are. Thank you.
Mother Theresa said, “Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier. Be the living expression of God's kindness. Kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile.” That's the really cool thing about kindness, it radiates outward (and inward too) and positively affects people who are not even direct recipients of the kindness. We felt good all day about that, even though we shoveled our own driveway. Like Morgan Freeman, who played God in the movie Evan Almighty said to Evan Baxter (played by Steve Carell), “How do you change the world? One Act of Random Kindness” (at a time). Enough said.
What “kindness” will you display today?
Tune in tomorrow to read the daily mood quote
Thank you for reading
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