“We need a million Martin Luther Kings to show up right now.”—Kyle Cease
Josh Radnor, the guy who played Ted Mosby on How I Met Your Mother, is one of my heroes. He meditates daily and knows the inner landscape (not the trappings of Hollywood) is the important thing. I thought it would be a good time to bring up one of his quotes, perhaps my favorite, about kindness.
Here’s what he said:
“It’s not our job to play judge and jury, to determine who is worthy of our kindness and who is not. We just need to be kind, unconditionally and without ulterior motive, even – or rather, especially – when we’d prefer not to be.”
When we choose kindness and generosity in whatever situation we find ourselves, to whomever happens to be in front of us, it opens a crack that enables us to see a whole different reality.
That tiny twist—a smile, offering a hand, even just being generous in thought—not only changes the inner landscape, but it creates a ripple effect. It reminds us, “Here’s how the world could be.”
Generosity doesn’t fit the narrative, not in a me-me-me world. And that’s the very thing that shakes up the old story, the very thing that flips the dominant paradigm.
Which is why Kyle Cease is spot on–the world is crying out for a whole country full of Martin Luther Kings.
Pam Grout is the author of 18 books including E-Squared: 9 Do-it-Yourself Energy Experiments that Prove Your Thoughts Create Your Reality and the about to be released, Thank and Grow Rich: a 30-day Experiment in Shameless Gratitude and Unabashed Joy
15 Responses
Love, love, love THIS!
The love is all!!!!
Thank goodness we still have Jimmy Carter (and Rosalynn)! And I am a lucky gal. In my Universe, there are so many more kind and loving people than not. And I love to find common ground with those who are, or think,differently than myself.
Liked your comments Pam, drawn to your positivity.I’d love to start an online discussion group centered around e squared philosophies, interested? Anyone else?
Jenee4139@aol.com
Thanks for that. I will take that as a compliment. I probably would not be interested in a separate discussion group, just because I feel like I spend enough time on the internet, and don’t want to have more excuses to stay on. I do love Pam Grout’s blog and reading these comments from all of you. That’s plenty for me.
Have a lovely day, Jenee!
So true! Love always wins!
Love this!! LOVE YOU!!!
Very fitting during these difficult times!
Have been thinking similarly to Kyle Cease but haven’t seen Martin anywhere. He made such an enormous difference. Who he was as a human being cannot be replicated, but what he stood for can. Perhaps it’s time that WE ALL step up and BE unconditionally loving and kind toward one another. Thanks for the post Pam.
In the end LOVE is all there is!
Oh but to know the power of giving…what better to give than kindness…with maturity and expierence I have learned it is truly better to give than recieve ….thanks for sharing….
Pam Grout thank you for bringing hope and laughter to this world.
I loved your last post about kindness.
I could not agree more. We are in desperate need for more kindness right here and right now. Let’s hope that we all can “be the change that we want to see in the world”.
Oh My Goodness. Last night I went to a concert, in memory of my brother. I had four tickets, three of us could make it, sadly one could not. I thought I would just give the ticket to someone in the Ticket Sales queue. As we walked out of the car park towards the venue there was a man with “Ticket Wanted” scrawled on a piece of cardboard. Immediate, spontaneous thoughts were ingested and choked on; it’s too far from venue, he’s just going to take it and sell it, etc etc. So I held on to it. I stood at the Ticket Sales booth waiting for someone I could give the ticket to. No one came, no one. Show was starting, we had to go in. I loved the concert, danced, laughed, cried and just imagined my brother in the empty seat beside me. But all I could think about was the man with the “Ticket Wanted” sign and I have thought about him all day and what I worked out is that I was so selfish.
“It’s not our job to play judge and jury, to determine who is worthy of our kindness and who is not.” This is so true and it is amazing that it is today that I have come across your words. I understand that even if he did take the ticket from me to sell to someone else, then that is what he needed to do and that it would have been his ticket to do that with. My generosity should not have come with conditions. I had a ticket to set free and I couldn’t because I had attached conditions to it and so no one got to enjoy the concert in a seat that sat unnecessarily empty. This is a valuable lesson to me and only fully understood once reading your words. Thank you.
I only stepped through the secret door yesterday and it has been an amazing 24 hours, it really has. Again, thank you.
Reblogged this on Beautiful Echo Chambers and commented:
I found this post the day I needed to learn this very important fact: our acts of kindness should not come with conditions. I posted a comment explaining how I learnt this lesson and how I will carry it with me always.
I didn’t know that about Josh Radnor, so great! I just posted today about meditation. …it is always time well spent and ‘the center of my storm’. 🙂 Thank you for sharing Pam!