Day to Day happenings in my life

Day 4 for Bards Hall

June fifth 4th blog for

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The Bard's Hall Contest  (13+) NOVEMBER: Comedy... Thanksgiving with the Family #981150 by StephBee

I’ve just been listening to a Podcast by the author of his new book called the Kindness Revolution.
What an amazing man Hugh Mackay is. Now in his mid eighties he’s been social commentator throughout his life. He’s an Australian writer and has written about kindness and happiness, not in a religious or preaching way but more to help us live our lives, maybe in a more simple, or at least not so aggressively perhaps. The podcast can be heard by checking out ‘Conversations with Richard Fidler’ on Australian ABC radio.
I think his last five minutes gave me food for thought when he was talking about death. The interviewer, Sarah, was asking him how he felt about dying and if he feared death. He said that in his experience people on their death beds hoped they’d been a kind person, that they’d been a good parent, or friend and that they hoped they’d be remembered kindly or fondly.
He then said “you know, why wait until you’re dying?” Let your last thoughts at the end of the day be “have I been kind today. Have I really listened to someone who needed a friend?” It’s just as easy to be kind than not.
He gave an example of how humans have the capacity to be kind to people they don’t know even when it’s an inconvenience to themselves. The interviewer suggested that maybe we might help someone to make ourselves feel better. The example was: You’re running late, it’s pouring with rain. A person on the street, spills her groceries all over the wet road. So, naturally you stop and help, you get wet, cold and now you’re even later for your appointment. You feel worse not better. So why would we do that? Why make ourselves late, cold and wet to help a complete stranger? Because we’d feel like a terrible person if we didn’t? He thinks as human beings most of us have an innate kindness within us all somewhere.
Anyway I think I’m going to take it on board. I shall ask myself at the end of each day: Have you been as kind as you could have been today?