Tag: kindness

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Kind and Caring Wishes for this Christmas season

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Christmas is a bridge. We need bridges as the river of time flows past. Today’s Christmas should mean creating happy hours for tomorrow and relieving those of yesterday.

Gladys Taber

The lead up to this Christmas season has once again been one of increasing anxiety and a multitude of concerns such as a triple viral threat; inflation and supply chain issues; record high mortgage rates; the ongoing war in Ukraine and so many other negative stories that relentlessly spin before our eyes in the daily news cycles.

In just a few short days many of us are preparing to celebrate Christmas in spite of all the challenges before us. We learned last year that even under the duress of the pandemic that we could still connect with family and friends in some meaningful way.

We are tasked again with making memories perhaps in a different kind of way given the challenges we are now facing. But if our focus remains on what truly matters, the love and caring support of our families and friends, we will get through these trying times just as we have in the past.

It will be memories of the kindness and caring of others that will matter the most. Please know that I am sending to you the best wishes for this Christmas season. May you stay healthy and safe wrapped in the love of those that matter most in your life.

Best wishes!!

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Words to live by…

Source: Anonymous

Watching the events that have been unfolding south of the border, has been astonishing and upsetting in equal measures. As a woman, I have grown up in a time and culture where human rights are at times hard to come by. But once enshrined, it seemed inconceivable that the right to make choices could just be erased.

As the world grapples with a war, climate change, roaring inflation, threats to income and food security, it just boggles the mind that we will likely be facing another summer of social discontent. And given the previous power struggles over how to manage the pandemic, one can only hope for a better display of human civility.

The time is now to work with one another collaboratively rather than pulling even further apart on ideological issues that drive self-serving politics. There are simply too many tangible pressing world needs that must be addressed with immediacy.

If only our world could be sprinkled with a modicum of respect, kindness, and care, imagine how far we could go together.

Stay healthy and safe!

Winter Solstice: Time of letting go

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It is a time for acknowledging hope in the darkness, while waiting for the light to return.

Lynda Monk

People in the Northern hemisphere have just finished celebrating Winter Solstice in quieter ways but still with strong interest during this powerful time. Many use this time of darkness as a traditional marker for letting go our concerns that weigh us down; releasing those that no longer meet our needs or suit our current life purpose. It is a time of inviting hope into our future as the days grow lighter and lighter.

The time of a winter solstice invites us to reflect on nature’s ebbs and flows; a mirror for those ups and downs we have experienced during this year of 2021 which seem more pronounced than past years. It seems we are being urged to listen more deeply to the rhythms of our natural world and to pay greater attention. We may be encouraged to approach those in our lives with an extra measure of kindness and caring.

As we move through these trying times, our reflections serve to help us focus on what matters most in our lives. Nature’s powerful lessons about being in darkness and then entering the cycle of light serve as reminders that difficult times move along and so will we. This message of hope demands that we pay more attention to the aspects in life that have the most meaning for us.

May you stay healthy and safe wrapped in the love of all of those who matter most in your lives.

All the best during this holiday season!

It doesn’t cost anything to be kind

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If you want others to be happy, practice compassion.

If you want to be happy, practice compassion

Dalai Llama

As we approach the one year anniversary since the pandemic began, the voices in our community have become louder and at times, difficult to listen to. We have all had to face our internal reactions to the impact that this virus has had on our lives. And as a general guideline, reactivity tends to come from a place of fear or a need to exert control over some aspect of our lives.

Across the globe, we are seeking hope and imagine positive outcomes with new vaccines. And at the same time we seem to be exposed to constant anger and frustration lurking at every turn about a myriad of issues. It seems that many places around the globe are coming to grips with the realization that public health guidelines will need to remain in place for some time to come. Loosening restrictions won’t occur overnight and will likely be scaled back at a snail’s pace.

We watch, we listen, and we interpret information that is constantly shifting and changing. It seems at times that the learning curve about this virus and what we need to do about it, continues to become steeper and steeper.

All the while, we need to recognize that every person has their own way of managing through this experience. If we find ourselves constantly judging the actions and behaviours of others, we are likely not paying that much attention to what we are doing. Whether we realize it or not, we are all in this together and healing comes from a place of reflection and compassion.

Many of us may be concerned about the financial, emotional, and social costs to this pandemic, but there is one critical option available to each of us. And there is no cost to it whatsoever.

And that is to internalize and practice kindness. Kindness, both in thought and actions towards others as well as to ourselves, is free and comes without strings attached. Instead, when we come to the people, events and circumstances in our lives from a place of kindness, it generates positive actions which allow us to move forward in good ways.

And wouldn’t it be much easier to navigate through this next year if there was more kindness circulating in our world. Be kind to yourself. And be kind to others.

Stay healthy and safe!

From Sourdough bread to six feet apart

I cannot do all the good that the world needs. But the world needs all the good that I can do.

Jane Stanfield
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The end of a year is typically a time for some reflection on what is behind us and planning for celebrations as we usher in the new one. Since we can’t engage in typical New Year celebrations, many of us are spending more time than usual in reflection.

2020 seems to have been a year full of contradictions. A global pandemic that initially brought us together and then seemed to polarize and pull us apart. Countries demanding restrictions to keep everyone safe and then struggling as conflicts emerged when resistance and resentment set in. Neighbours rallying to cheer on health care workers at the end of shifts to large gatherings where protestors demonstrated against masks and science.

From sharing the best sourdough bread recipes to open defiance of public health guidelines. Where friends and family in isolation found comfort and connection in Zoom meeting rooms to phone hotlines set up so you could report anyone who violated the rules. While staying six feet apart, we learned to respect others around us in order to keep them safe to annoyance at anyone who seemed to think and behave differently than we did.

As vaccines are rolled out around the world, and lack of patience and exhaustion with our isolated world threatens to take hold, my wish for the new year is for more kindness. Kindness to everyone regardless of their point of view. Kindness to those in our lives who have managed their personal risk differently than we might have. Kindness which will be healing and help us transition into the world when this pandemic ends.

Farewell to the year 2020 – may the new year bring safety, good health, and above all, more kindness in each of our hearts.