You're so kind

Kindness can be as simple as a smile directed at a stranger—that includes children, who are often overlooked as the individuals they are. 

 It can be retrieving a dropped item not noticed by a fellow shopper, or while walking through a parking lot.

Kindness can be allowing someone to go in front of you in the check-out lane when your basket is full and they only have three items in their hands; it is taking the time to listen when someone is in need of “an ear;” it is sharing yourself with another, just because you can. 

The opportunities to express kindness are endless.

They are so abundant I could not possibly list them all here.  Some expressions of kindness are more personal than others.  For example, writing a check is not to be reviled in any way shape or form but, face it, it is less personal than a one-on-one experience with a fellow human being which usually leaves an imprint on the heart. The kindnesses to which I refer are those born out of expressing the best side of our humanity face to face, soul to soul.

There are those who might say I’m not referring to kindness at all, but rather compassion, generosity, and love.  I think kindness embodies all of those qualities.  It is the physical and emotional manifestation of our basic Unity Principles.  It is a reflection of the teachings of Christ.  It is our Christ-self in action.  The surprising benefit is--or maybe it’s not surprising at all--t feels good when put it into practice. 

We have just celebrated our best and most unique holiday in our country, Thanksgiving.  Gratitude and kindness—things we generally put into practice at Thanksgiving—go hand-in-hand.

It comes fairly easily to most of us at this time of year, and now as we slip into the holiday season we are reminded time and again that this is a time of giving, and gratitude, and love.  Wouldn’t it be lovely if we focused on these positive approaches as we move through this holiday season?   

Wouldn’t it be lovely if we decided to create a touch-stone called “kindness” to use throughout the holiday season and throughout the coming year? 

I have a suspicion that most of us have something we would like to improve upon in our lives, or in the world.  Perhaps taking the idea of kindness and incorporating it into your daily life could be your contribution to achieving that goal.  I’m sure you’ve heard the term, “practical Christianity” when it comes to our Unity teaching.  It is what many people say Unity is.

I’d like to suggest that from this day forward we each start practicing kindness, toward one another as well as toward ourselves.

 Meditate on this as we move through December and into the New Year.  Contemplate the wonderful and selfless act of kindness.  Then, put it into practice and give yourself the best Christmas present anyone could ever receive.  Love.

Namaste :)

Kate Morgan for Unity of Charlotte

I am music

“I am
A hole in a flute
That the Christ’s breath moves through—
Listen to this
Music.”
                  —Hafiz (Ladinsky), The Gift

Ladisky is the internationally acclaimed best-selling translator of six books of mystical poetry including The Gift, Love Poems From God, The Purity of Desire, and I Heard God Laughing.

The Bloomsbury Review says “[Daniel Ladinsky] sees God everywhere.”

Judging Love

When we think about love, the word “judgment” may not enter our minds. But too often judgment builds a wall that separates us from love. I am not talking about just romantic love, but agape, universal love, including self love.

When you judge you miss the experience of being present to the love that is right before you. Judgment requires comparison and measurement. How can you possibly be present to love when your mind is distracted by what should be, could be, once was, or might have been?

In the New Testament as part of his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus asks, “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?”

It is this plank—our misinformed beliefs that have separated us from Christ consciousness--that cause us to judge. We judge if we have the need to be right and believe we are more than others. We judge if we believe we are less and we make others our heroes, not understanding that we are One and equally capable of expressing God.

We can only love one another fully when we are equal and not judging ourselves to be powerless or victims.

Matthew 7 asks: “How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye?”

We are told to take the plank out of our own eye first, and then we will see clearly to remove the speck from our brother’s eye. This is enlightenment and through grace we have this ability to heal ourselves by looking at our own selves, not with judgment by the ego but with the true self, which always includes love and understanding.

--Patrice Gaines for Unity of Charlotte