“There is no such thing as a small act of kindness. Every act creates a ripple with no logical end”
– Scott Adams
“Compassion challenges our assumptions, our sense of self-limitation, worthlessness, of not having a place in the world, our feelings of loneliness and estrangement”
-Sharon Salzberg
Kindness and compassion are not about giving; it’s all about sharing what we have got with someone who needs it – be it knowledge or skill, time, effort, words of encouragement, smiles of appreciation, or, of course, money. In this sharing, as you can see, no act is small, as Scott Adams says, and can create an infinite ripple effect. The Japanese concept of Kaizen, creating a small improvement, a stitch in time intervention can have a tremendous cascading effect. As an advancing civilization, we need to hard code sharing in our DNA.
The rewards to the one who shares are not just instant gratification or just a feel-good factor. As Sharon Salzberg very aptly said, it questions the very premise that it has got to be the survival of the fittest, for no one can be fit everywhere and at all times. Such a belief would turn into fear, impose boundaries on what we, as human beings, can achieve, make us feel incapable (as we are witnessing during this pandemic surge) and make us all fight our battles alone, with a feeling of helplessness.
Every religion, every leader worth following, every good book ever written encourages and entreats us all to one thing – to be kind and compassionate. You cannot do a kind act too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late. Let us begin now. Let the mighty oak of kindness grow from the acorns of compassion that we sow today.
#KindnessMatters #Compassion #BeCompassionate #BeKind
About the author: Mr Raghavendra is a tech expert and has been in the space for over two decades. He’s a kindness champion at aidbees and we are glad to have him as a guest on our blog.
