Today's
quotation:
Perform a kind action, and
you find a kind
feeling growing in yourself, even if it was not there
before. As you increase the number of your kind and
charitable interests, you find that the more you do for
them, the more you love them. Serve others, not because
they are your friends, not because they are interesting,
not because they are grateful. . . . Serve them because
they are the children of your father, and therefore are
all your brethren, and you will soon find that the fervent
heart keeps time with the charitable hands.
W.B.O. Peabody
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Today's
Meditation:
One
of the more fascinating dynamics of life is that we tend
to be treated as we treat others. If I treat the
people I deal with as my brothers and sisters, then guess
how they'll tend to treat me? It usually won't be
instantaneous, as they may be suspicious of my motives
(why is he treating me so well?) or have a lot of walls up
that need to be broken through, but once they realize that
I really do treat others kindly, they'll treat me kindly
in return.
And
they really are my brothers and sisters. Culturally,
we tend to preach separation of all people rather than
unity--if you aren't me, then you are separate from
me. We preach competition rather than cooperation,
and we teach independence rather than
interdependence. These dangerous and destructive
ways of looking at life can be overcome only if one person
at a time decides to reject them and live his or her life
as he or she sees fit.
It's
taken me a long time to see the true unity of all human
beings. While our bodies may exist separately, our
spirits--which is who we truly are--are unified; we
all are children of the same Spirit. And your belief
in God or Spirit or whatever power you believe has created
the universe and all of us does not need to be the same as
mine, for your spirit and my spirit are kindred spirits,
no matter who you are or what you do. Kindred
spirits are not limited to those who have similar
interests or skills or talents--we all are kindred
spirits.
Unfortunately,
though, we treat our kindred spirits as if they were
strangers, and we keep them at a distance as if we don't
care about them. But we must care about them, and we
must show them love and kindness--if this world ever is
going to become the loving place of harmony that it has
the potential to be.
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