Blogs of kindness

                                                                                                                                                                   Kindness is a Two Way Street 

Barbara Bickley – The Villages, Florida

You can call kindness a two-way street. There is a giver and a receiver. If you have ever been on the receiving end, you know just how wonderful kindness is. There are a lot of kind acts, but some are life changing! Often they are not monetary or tangible - just kind.

When my husband was very ill, my card club girls brought us meals and helped us get to our doctor appointments along with other chores. It made a very hard time tolerable. That’s when you can never pay them back, so you pay kindness forward. For the next 18 years after his loss I worked for hospice, hopefully returning the kind acts.

Looking at kindness as a giver, sometime kind acts come from your heart! They come automatically. It usually isn’t pre-planned; you see a situation and want to make it easier for someone. This may possibly come from your past when you were hurting, and someone helped you. There are other times when you know there is no acceptable way to act except being kind. One that comes to mind are the years I spent volunteering in hospice house when others were at their most vulnerable time of life. Also my belief is, when you are being kind, often the receiver is you. The gift of kindness is given to you!

When I was going into the 6 th grade I had my first very kind teacher. The rule was that when going into the next grade you had to turn in the previous year’s report card. In the 5 th grade I had a teacher that probably didn’t know kindness existed. Up to the 5 th grade I was an average student but I went downhill mostly because of that teacher.

Going into the 6 th grade it was time to turn in our last year’s report card. I didn’t, and for a week Mr. G said, “Barbara, you must bring in your card. No more excuses or you will have to go to the Principal’s office.” Finally I said, “I’m so ashamed of my grades but I promise I will do my very best if I don’t have to show you my card.”

He said “Okay” and I went on from there to always doing my best – above and beyond. This act of kindness was life changing for me.  ❤️