Kindness in friendship is important. You don’t have to have money to be friends but it’s good to care. People need kindness and compassion.
When you are in a bad spot having someone be willing to give you a hug can really help. Being understanding and non judgemental is important. You can say the wrong thing but be forgiven.
Time passes and life changes, people die and kindness helps. Thinking about it I needed peoples caring and kindness so much over the last few years. Thank you to them and I hope I can give some of it back.
Friends sent me a lovely get well card and flowers. Thanks to them, they really lifted my spirits. Very shaky selfies!
I was just wishing someone would visit when there was a knock at the door, it was a friend from choir who was dropping off a card, flowers and a pot full of daffodils for outside the house.
I can’t tell you how overwhelmed I felt. I’ve gradually been feeling better, not recovered but 3/4 of the way there. The house is a tip and I’ve barely been out of the house for 4 weeks. I burst into tears while trying to say thank you. It’s so nice to realise people really care.
Love and hugs to you if you are ill or feeling down at the moment. X
Is Lady Liberty disappearing into mist and fog? What happened to the support of huddled masses? Can there possibly be mass deportations?
Looking up the name of the island where people arrived in America, Google says:
On 1 January 1892, Ellis Island opened to receive immigrants. At its peak, during the early years of the 20th Century, thousands of people passed through its gates each day. Angel Island in San Francisco Bay had the same role on the west coast from 1910 to 1940.
So why is this aspect of America. Support and kindness now being curtailed? Perhaps it is through fear, perhaps it is selfishness. I don’t know. There seems to be almost a mass hysteria around the world where xenophobia is taking control. We see it in the UK where the legal routes to migration have been reduced and people fleeing conflict have been forced to risk travelling across the Channel in small boats to get to the UK. Vicious rumours about those poor people have caused riots and misinformed so many people in negative ways.
We see war in Syria now that has started to maim and kill people again. Destabilising countries causes strife and fear and forces people to move. Gaza is in crisis, Ukraine is being destroyed. Sudan has floods and starvation to mention a few current crises. But instead of dealing with the bad actors we allow the oligarchs of the world to feel they can get away with their cruelty.
All of us need to stop and think about kindness, caring and love. It’s about time we thought as President Kennedy did, not what we can do for ourselves but what we can do for others. Somewhere humanity needs to think about our fellow humans and not just grabbing what we can and damn the rest.
It makes me dispair and worry about what we are doing. Maybe fear of what’s happening to the Earth’s environment is now impacting on its population. Somehow we must start to care more about each other.
What would I have done without the caring nature of my friends? Each time I have been down there have been caring words that have helped to bring me back up.
No one turned against me, no one ignored me. They were all there in one way or another. Life can throw bad things at you and your family and friends, so we all need to care for each other. And why not? No one should think they are superior to others. What would life be like if people didn’t care for one another? I don’t want to find out! Support and kindness are two other great qualities to value.
I’ve always tried to be kind, I hope I care for people. I’ve decided to always try and be pleasant with people if I can. I still react to bad behaviour and think it should be dealt with, but we should have more consideration.
I sat in the pharmacy today waiting for some medication. The shop has had a new computer system and they are still trying to get up to speed with it. The shop was very busy and there were people queuing all the time I was there. Some people were fine, others demanding, and some complained. One woman behind the counter was trying to deal with all of them. She remained patient and helpful despite the pressure. When she came over to get something off the shelf near where I was sitting I thanked her and said I appreciated their help. I told her how I had noticed how hard they were working. She said some people think they are doing nothing. She was pleased that I had thanked her.
It costs nothing to be polite, and a few kind words can go a long way to making people feel better.
Honesty and kindness means not being cruelly honest, to balance the truth and it’s outcomes. Kindness is probably the most important of the two. Honesty can be used to hurt.
So the two can cause moral dilemmas, but perhaps the best use of them is to combine them with the doctors’ oath “first do no harm”, at least that can help point you in the right direction.
I remember also, the two wrongs don’t make a right, even if in mathematics two negatives can make a positive (I think I remember?). Revenge and hate don’t make the world better even if it can make people feel better. It can only worsen the situation. Given that, I’m not talking about appeasement. What I mean is that more truth and reconciliation commissions should be created. It may take many years before they can try and work, but it seems like a better idea than violence and war cascading down the centuries.
But what can I do? Try and keep to my principals, avoid anger if I can.
Dr Who would be real (what a character!). Scientists would have solved global warming. People would be kinder to each other. There would be enough food to feed the population of the world.
No one would be called a bleeding heart Liberal, because everyone would be. Things would unfortunately happen as normal, like death and taxes, but maybe they would be organised a bit better rather than taking from the poor to give to the rich.
There would be a hypocrite law, basically if you acted like a hypocrite you could be fined for deliberately gaslighting people. I guess there would still be freedom of speech but hate speech would be banned. In my alternative universe we would be in touch with good aliens who wanted to help us survive.
Life would be benign but not boring. And all animals would not be hunted or pushed into extinction. I’m a bit too much of a pessimist though to believe all this could happen.
(I sound like a Miss World contestant from the 1970’s!)
How often do you say “no” to things that would interfere with your goals?
If I can help somebody I generally will. I do think about it though. I have gone out late at night and picked up a friend because she missed the last bus home, I have helped people out even though it inconvenienced me. Why? That’s the way I was brought up. Fair shares, kindness, modesty were things that we had drummed into us. Don’t be selfish, don’t be jealous. We were not perfect, but we could see that if you helped others it makes the world a better place. Yes there is a risk of getting ripped off, but I don’t give money away, I’d rather help.
Talking about scams, a man stopped us in the street outside our house. Can you give me the bus fare to a maternity unit several miles away? I have gone to the wrong hospital in this city and my wife has just rung to say she’s having the baby! Instead of offering money I said I would drive him to the right hospital. Needless to say he turned us down! Strangely another man stopped us with the same scenario a year later. I couldn’t resist offering a lift too, and when he said no I asked him if he had a brother who had the same problem a year ago. He walked away…..
Imagine a glass box of fireflies all flying around. Cold light from their abdomens? Could you use it as a torch, or would they all settle down in a corner and go to sleep? I wouldn’t want to catch them and trap them so I will use LED lights instead.
We have choices, we don’t have to trap or kill anything, we don’t have to be cruel. We can try and do better than we do. Realise people are not perfect. Learn to forgive if we can. Let the fireflies fly free.
Mallaband-Brown 