"No act of kindness no matter how small…is ever wasted." -Aesop
An empathetic gesture, a word of caring or a random act of kindness can awaken one's heart. These experiences evoke a metamorphosis of sorts. Yet it is a very private experience, a tenderness that is often not allowed to surface because we avoid touching upon the fragile nature of our being.
When we show up with our full presence a mutual trust emerges that invites safe expression or an unburdening of what we need to lay down. A sacredness that extends beyond religious or secular belief into an intimacy that forges a bond of human connection and caring.
Excerpt from Naomi Shihab Nye's poem, "Kindness"
"Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,
you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day to mail letters and
purchase bread,
only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
it is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you every where
like a shadow or a friend."
Self care and spiritual practices are necessary to balance the continual outpouring of self that accompanies caregiving as one turns towards, rather than away from suffering. Caregivers are adept at giving but often less comfortable in receiving care. In relationship we discover the reciprocal nature & joy in caregiving.
It helps to remember that fear is transformed by love.
Recently, I have been noticing how small acts of kindness unfold a thousand times a day and how surprised I am by the intensity of emotion; tears well up so easily as we soften.
The wisdom in A Course in Miracles, reveals;
There is no order of difficulty in miracles.
One is not "harder" or "bigger" than another.
They are all the same.
All expressions of love are maximal.
Liz Sorensen Wessel
Art image by Liz
Journal of Sacred Work 
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