Wouldn’t it be great if life came with an instruction manual? One that gave you all the clues to avoid the tragedies, pitfalls, terrors and hearts breaks? One that showed the super secret routes and how to get where you want to go faster, where to invest to be totally profitable, and how to find someone to love? It would be fabulous to have all those answers ready to read at a moments notice, it would save us months even years of going around in circles or wasting our time on the wrong things.
Unfortunately life does not have an instruction manual and no one book could solve all the riddles we face each and every day. Henry James found three things that will help…be kind. He thinks is is so important that he says it three times. It may not be a full on instruction manual and yet if kindness were our mantra how would our world be different?
I once heard an interview with Oprah Winfrey. With all the cruelty and abuse she has suffered in her life she has one basic rule, no matter how or what people do always respond with kindness. If they can you a bad name, reply with kindness. If they comment on your face, your race or your Momma, always respond with kindness. She figures why add to the hate in this world, and kindness can unnerve the most angry of humans.
We see bumper stickers and signs about random acts of kindness, what if we practices kindness and it wasn’t random? What if kindness was the way we behaved no matter what? And how would we feel differently if others treated us that way no matter our mood or the words we chose? I think Henry James is right, be kind three times over and let it rule the day. I think we would be surprised how everything in our path would change.
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