Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Acts of Kindness By Patricia C Behnke

We do not always know how those little acts of kindness have left an imprint on those around us.

We forget in the every day bustle of our lives to remember the little things we do are often the ones that remain unforgettable.

Sometimes little acts of kindness can become giant deeds to the recipient and can make all the difference in the world. And we may not even have realized what we have done.

When I was eighteen I decided I knew everything there was to know in the world and graduated from high school with a brick, not a chip, on my shoulder and a mental block the size of a cement block.

By the time of my graduation open house, I think my mother had actually stopped speaking to me. I had rented an apartment in Ann Arbor, 30 miles from my parents, and had gotten a job as a clerk typist for a large corporation. Now in my mother’s world a daughter didn’t do this kind of thing. I was supposed to live at home and work or go to college and receive my Mrs. Degree.

But I had no use for college or for anyone’s advice and believe me, when I’d made up my mind on something, my family had learned in a mere 18 years, to leave me alone.

Enter my high school government teacher. He was the only one who took a few moments to try and talk to me.

“You’re far too smart to not go to college,” he told me at my open house. He had practically pushed me into a chair in my parents’ living room and he sat on the ottoman at my feet. “You’ll not be happy as a clerk typist.”

He refused to let me protest and tell how worldly I was having grown up in a town with a population of 1,200. I still lived across the street from the old hospital where I had been born.

Because he took those few moments with me, I began to reevaluate. I kept remembering his words. They weren’t a command or a question, but a statement. And because he had bothered with me at all, I began to open my mind to other possibilities. By the following January I was enrolled in college and within 4 years was back substitute teaching at my alma mater.

And my mother was speaking to me again.

When my mother contracted double pneumonia four years ago, I wasn’t sure when I should go back to Michigan. She had a 50/50 chance for survival and my brothers and sister-in-laws didn’t know what to tell me.

One of my sister-in-laws went to the doctor and said, “Her daughter is in Florida. When do we tell her to come?”

He didn’t hesitate. “Now.”

I arrived within 24 hours with my mother still trying to pull out of it and still conscious. She nearly pulled the IV out of her arm reaching for me when I walked into her room.

I never thanked that doctor for his act of kindness. He probably has no idea what it meant to me to arrive at my mother’s bedside while she still knew I was there.

I never thanked my government teacher either. And I don’t know how to reach him now.

But I can thank the friend who took the time this weekend to listen to me and offer advice. It only took a few minutes of his time, and he probably doesn’t even know how important it was to me, but it provided me with a lifeline. He knows who he is, and I appreciate his kindness.

Those acts of kindness need not be with someone we know. A simple smile, a grateful word, a slowing of our pace to let someone else go first in line at the grocery store. We probably do many of these things unconsciously, but try to consciously help someone and the benefits are tremendous.

Not only does the recipient benefit from those precious few moments, but also we can leave our own lives for a moment and think of someone else for a change.

It’s better than aspirin as a reliever of pain.


source
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Do you believe that there is a super natural being always telling us what really make us happy & peace? yes, there is..act of kindness that we see in every person we meet..

jerome pagalan
http://freshhealthfruit.blogspot.com/



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