"It is tempting to think only about polishing the world in distant places or in response to egregious circumstances. Your everyday interactions with others invite a response just as significant. It is not a question of one kind of polishing versus another, or whether one is more important. Rather it is the daily opportunities of human contact that plead for us to be aware and awake to what the present moment invites of you.
"Your kindness polishes the world in the course of your daily life. The Hebrew prophet Micah says there are three things that the Holy asks us to integrate into our lives: 'To do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.' To be just and to be humble are not enough by themselves. Micah suggests that our practice of kindness is as defining of our life as anything else.
"Practicing kindness reflects how we wish to travel through life, placing great worth and value on each of the relatives of the Holy. When we place value on kindness, we accept it as a gift and it remains a gift — instead of becoming a possession — when we continually give it away. Polishing the world with kindness creates a gift economy of life. As you practice the gift economy, kindness accrues value as a significant new currency in circulation.
"By example, I have never forgotten the conversation I had with a clerk in a grocery store. I was in line and he was ringing up my purchases. My intuition led me to ask, 'So how are you dealing with your day?' As if waiting for someone to ask this question, he quickly told me about a sadness that he was dealing with in his life, adding that he knew he'd be all right, but that he'd felt off-balance and troubled all day. There were others in line behind me and the conversation lasted no more than a few minutes. As I picked up my bags, he said to me, 'Thank you for being so kind.'
"I'd not set out to be kind, but his comment was arresting. I reflected on the countless number of people we interact with in the course of each day. So many of them are people with whom a simple transaction takes place. I could empathize, as none of us wish to be anonymous or invisible. It is a contradiction to the truth of being loved for our existence and being relatives of the Holy.
"The following day, someone befriended me on Facebook and wrote with generous kindness about what I'd said in a talk he'd heard me give the night before. I was not looking for his kindness until I received it as the lovely unexpected gift that it was in my day. Kindness may not be a religion in and of itself, yet it is an expression of our journey to a new way of being human.
"Kindness emerges from our mindfulness about being present and aware of those we interact with each day. I make it a practice to give thanks every day for at least one kindness received. As I listen to my own breath in daily meditation, present to myself and to the breath of life which flows through me, I become mindful about receiving and interacting with the kindness that exists around me at all times. At the same time, I invite the gift or blessing of kindness to be expressed with each person I encounter."
