Amazing power of acts of kindness

I AM a great believer the power that is held in the kindness of total strangers ― how someone’s, ‘Good morning!’ can be the glitter in a morning that may have started gloomy, how someone touching your shoulder can make you feel like you are not alone in this world.

The kind words that may come from a lady sitting across from you on a park bench could make a difference. It may be the strength from the hand that lifts you when you suddenly lose you balance and fall on a busy street. Or it could be that amazing power that makes someone stop, turn around and reach out to another human being, with no benefit or gain on their part ― just the simple act of human kindness.

I can never understand that power and yet I know it is the power that makes the world keep turning. That human quality that makes strangers connect when they least expect it.

I am testimony to the kindness of strangers. I can sit here and write you endless pages, of dates and times when and how strangers have touched my world, turning it around when I was down and out. Each time I take part or experience an act of kindness, I find myself in awe of what we, as people, can do when we want to—when for just a moment, we pull down our guards, set aside the mean nature we boast with and just allow ourselves to act in the way nature intended for us to act, to offer the simplicity of being human, helping each other instead of pulling each other down.

It has been asserted that between every human being in the world, there is only six degrees of separation. The theory suggests that between you and me there are only six people between us. That means if we created a circle, there would be six people connecting us to each other to make a full circle.

The first time I heard about the theory, I believed it did not make sense. Now when I see someone touching another person’s life and I believe more and more that we are all connected to each other, in ways we do not seem to understand.

I have come to understand that the person who may have stopped by the side of the highway and changed your car’s tyre connected with you through their kindness as you connected with them by receiving their kindness. As the two of you connected, you become abstractly linked to their family–in the same way that they became linked to your family.

By making sure that your wheel was changed and you were safe, your family thanked them for their kindness in the same sense that I thanked their family for making them such a kindhearted person.

And there, in front of you is the six degrees of separation. I believe that every act of kindness we perform is, in some way, an act of kindness to ourselves. Just as the world is round, so are our lives.

The kindness you gave to the lost person on the street will be given back to you in some form or the other. Regardless of how small or insignificant an act may appear, it will be given back you.

I get disappointed with myself as when I pass an act of kindness, when I do not perform it. How many times have we seen someone in desperate need of something we could offer and we just look aside and pretend we can’t see them? Or it may be that we are too busy doing other things that we cannot stop for a minute and be kind. This is when I feel we block our blessings. In the same way that we ignore a person in need of a simple smile; we block someone else from smiling at us. At times I feel that we do not understand the profound effects that come from either performing or not performing an act of kindness.

We are all human beings and the sooner that we see every YOU as every ME, we will realize that we are all connected and what we do for or to the other will come back to us. You may call it Karma, but to me it is plain and simple. Be kind to one another and see the life in each one of us.

I remember growing up my mother telling us that we should treat each person the way we would want our loved on treated. Now, I always ask myself, “What if this person I am ignoring could be my brother or sister being ignored by someone else?” That alone is enough to knock me back to my senses.

I hope we all realize that one day, sooner or later, if not now, the kindness of a total stranger will turn our word in ways that we may never forget. I hope we also realize that the lack of the kindness from the stranger can plunge our world into chaos. The more we smile, the more we give, the more we forgive and the more we love and open ourselves to the realization that we are all connected, the sooner this world will be a much better place to live.