Tag Archives: kindness

Our Best Selves

People talk about things in such a black and white way.  Let’s use the hot button topic of climate change as an example.  There’s a lot of talk on both sides of the issue about how the other side is ignorant and “our way” is the best way.  Our truth is the only truth.  Bullshit.  TheContinue reading “Our Best Selves”

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Our Best Selves

People talk about things in such a black and white way.  Let’s use the hot button topic of climate change as an example.  There’s a lot of talk on both sides of the issue about how the other side is ignorant and “our way” is the best way.  Our truth is the only truth.  Bullshit.  TheContinue reading “Our Best Selves”

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10 Word Review – Ebertfest: Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

Kindness. Human. Love. Respect. Empathy. Caring. Validating. Joy. Depth. Yes.

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Eight Years

Eight years ago today a doctor walked into my hospital room and told me I had leukemia. Since then I’ve periodically asked a question of myself.  Not, as you might expect, why me, or even just why.  There is no why.  It was random, not predictable, and as far as we know not preventable.  ItContinue reading “Eight Years”

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So, Why Learn Spanish?

130. Poem Written in 1991 When the Soviet Union Was Disintegrating by Ursula K. Le Guin The reason why I’m learning Spanish by reading Neruda one word at a time looking most of them up in the dictionary and the reason why I’m reading Dickinson one poem at a time and still not understanding orContinue reading “So, Why Learn Spanish?”

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We Need to Remember

“If we are to survive the most divisive presidency in generations, it’s up to us to climb down our family trees and better understand how we got here. It’s up to us to ask fellow countrymen “where are you from?” with a lot less fear and a lot more wonder.” – Bill Weir, States ofContinue reading “We Need to Remember”

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Time to Look in the Mirror

  We see what we want to see.  That’s part of the problem. I was perusing Facebook, which I must say prompts many posts on this blog, and I saw a theme.  Negativity.  Plain and simple. There were posts about “those” people.  Of one sort of another.  You know them, the idiots, the ridiculous, theContinue reading “Time to Look in the Mirror”

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52 Thoughts – Ninth Thought

Be kind in big ways and small even when it seems a tad difficult.  Be present.  Listen more, talk less. Close my eyes, turn my face to the sun or the wind or both at the same time and breathe deeply.  Spend time on or near the water.  Go on long walks with the pups.Continue reading “52 Thoughts – Ninth Thought”

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Candy Coated Kindness

We were out and about again today, running more errands, getting ready for some upcoming Christmas festivities.  Since we were going out we thought today would be a good day for the candy cane caper.  Sounds more adventurous or slightly naughty than it was, but it ended up being pretty nice.  We’d purchased a boxContinue reading “Candy Coated Kindness”

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Kindness Hits You Where You Live

Today might have been the most simple act of kindness we’ve done to date.  We were kind to each other.  We slept in, laughed, talked, shopped, did laundry, cooked, did dishes, drank our nightly decaf, held hands, showed each other cool photos online, took the pups for a nice walk, problem solved a couple ofContinue reading “Kindness Hits You Where You Live”

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Conserving Kindness

Today K and I made our yearly Christmas trip into Chicago.  We usually go to several places on our Christmas trip day, but this time we ended up just staying at the Lincoln Park Zoo all day.  We looked at the animals, had several different talks with zoo staff about various animals, ate some lunch,Continue reading “Conserving Kindness”

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A Morsel of Kindness

Everyone loves cookies and it just so happens my honey makes great M&M cookies.  Today’s kindness was a simple one.  She made cookies and we delivered them to three of our neighbors.  Needless to say they were surprised and very happy to get them.  Nothing like seeing people with big smiles on their faces.  KindnessContinue reading “A Morsel of Kindness”

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Keeping The Cold at Bay With Kindness

We found a big package of handwarmers at the bottom of our hat/scarf bin in our closet. At some point we bought them in bulk. Each little package is a pack of two handwarmers. It’s very cold out today so our act of kindness was to drive around our towns, both Champaign and Urbana, forContinue reading “Keeping The Cold at Bay With Kindness”

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Kindness Is No Joke

We are very corny.  Silly even.  It’s something both K and I share, a genuine dorkiness.  It makes our lives fun, we laugh a lot.  Because we love to laugh, we love to make other people laugh.  Sharing laughter is a kindness.  To yourself, and to the person you shared the laugh with.  So todayContinue reading “Kindness Is No Joke”

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Notes of Kindness

We go to the library a lot.  I’m a huge fan.  All sorts of people use the libary, which is one of the things that makes it so awesome.  It’s an amazing resource.  One of the things we thought we would do as we go forward with this whole kindness adventure was to write outContinue reading “Notes of Kindness”

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Smiling With Kindness

We decided, really since we started this whole adventure, but today especially, that we would be mindful of being outwardly open, friendly, chatty, interested, and kind toward whoever we came in contact with.  In all actuality, we are like this for the most part, in our daily lives, but it puts an extra special twistContinue reading “Smiling With Kindness”

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Helping Hand of Kindness

Sometimes the kind thing is a thing you might do anyway.  Something as simple as helping out someone when they’re in need.  Kindness doesn’t have to be done in big grand gestures or deliberate acts for someone you don’t know.  It can be simple, and right at home.  The kid’s water heater went out.  They’veContinue reading “Helping Hand of Kindness”

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Awash With Kindness

I spent 20 years of my life working with at-risk kids.  It was challenging work, but also very rewarding.  Initially I worked for several years with kids at a youth correction facility.  Later, and for most of my years doing the work, I worked as a Juvenile Probation Officer.  That involved a lot of things,Continue reading “Awash With Kindness”

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Warm Up With Kindness

Sometimes acts of kindness are truly random.  We had nothing planned for today.  No act thought out ahead of time.  We were driving to our local Co-op, Common Ground, talking about what to do today when we pulled up and the answer was right there.  In the planters in front of the store, where duringContinue reading “Warm Up With Kindness”

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Dog Days of Kindness

As most everyone can tell, we love our pups very much.  They bring so much light, joy, and love into our lives.  We also know we aren’t the only ones who feel this way about our furry family members.  Because of this we wanted to do something kind for other people’s dog and cats.  WeContinue reading “Dog Days of Kindness”

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