Being Kind For The Sake Of Kindness (And Nothing More)

February 18, 2020

No hidden agendas. Not wanting anything in return. Just kindness. Just because.

How does that make you feel? It makes me feel pretty darn good. Especially when the other person doesn’t ask for help and I get to offer it up to them on my own free will.

These random acts are what make the world go ’round. Whenever I can do something to help ease the pain of a friend, I’m there for them, no questions asked.

As humans, we tend to feel guilty when people go out of their way to provide a service for us with no strings attached. We immediately turn them down because we don’t want to put them out. What if instead, you lean towards gratitude that this person wants to lend you a hand.

Then it’s a win-win for everyone. We all get into conundrums where having an extra pair of hands is greatly appreciated and makes life easier for us. Our society teaches us to be independent but for eons before us, people came together forming villages. These were put in place so we didn’t have to do everything on our own.

In Malcolm Gladwell’s, Talking To Strangers, he writes about a remote village of Italian immigrants in the United States that were self-sufficient and in the best health. They functioned as a village and came together to aide in every single person’s success. Today, we live farther away from people, have cars to get us to places, stores that provide us with what we need, but what we don’t have is the closeness of small towns.

This is why, when we are able to reach and offer a hand to a friend, they are less inclined to take it. Keep on them and let them know that you want to help. This is what it’s like to be a part of MY village.

What random act of kindness have you perform recently?