The Simple Power of Kindness

Weekly wisdom to level up your creative life in 3 minutes, for free.

A SHORT STORY

I’m in Kenya this week, where, for the past 15 years, I have been constantly reminded of the power of kindness.

For instance, I have stayed at the same hotel for the past five years when I’m not with my Kenyan family, and Hassan, the security guard, always remembers me.

This time, he greeted me with a big handshake and a hug. I asked him about his family, and he asked about mine.

“We are well, we are well,” he tells me.

There is a Japanese proverb I love that says, “One kind word can warm three winter months.”

I’ve been noticing this in my own interactions recently—how the kind words someone has shared with me often remain the fuel for months to come.

The Dalai Lama says, “The moment you think of the well-being of others, your mind widens. You’re much more connected with the needs of everyone.”

It’s so true. Often, when I feel lost, I simply recite the mantra, “Think of the others. Be grateful for them.”

It always makes me feel better.

How can you think of the others today? How can you pass on a word of kindness to one of them?

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A PIECE OF ART

“The Raincoat” by Ada Limon

originally published in The Carrying

When the doctor suggested surgery
and a brace for all my youngest years,
my parents scrambled to take me
to massage therapy, deep tissue work,
osteopathy, and soon my crooked spine
unspooled a bit, I could breathe again,
and move more in a body unclouded
by pain. My mom would tell me to sing
songs to her the whole forty-five minute
drive to Middle Two Rock Road and forty-
five minutes back from physical therapy.
She’d say, even my voice sounded unfettered
by my spine afterward. So I sang and sang,
because I thought she liked it. I never
asked her what she gave up to drive me,
or how her day was before this chore. Today,
at her age, I was driving myself home from yet
another spine appointment, singing along
to some maudlin but solid song on the radio,
and I saw a mom take her raincoat off
and give it to her young daughter when
a storm took over the afternoon. My god,
I thought, my whole life I’ve been under her
raincoat thinking it was somehow a marvel
that I never got wet.

Grateful,

Michael