#KindnessMatters

Kindness …

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Max Patch Family Love

…Never to be underestimated.

Those who are kind, do so out of this special place in their heart.

I’ve met a few people in my life, and recognize the difference between genuine love given (kindness) from those seeking something in return for a favor done.

The difference is this…

… no expectation of a gift of any kind in return. Friendship remains intact and conversations and interactions continue to carry with them their natural rhythm, playfulness, joy, sorrow, triumphs, losses and love.

I’ve given to many people in my lifetime without remembering who or what, and upon occasion, one of these persons will come back to me and say, ‘Hey, thanks again, just wanted to give this back to you.’ I look at them and say, I don’t remember giving this to you. It makes me feel good to give without expectation of something in return. Occasionally, when I can get away with it and have a few extra dollars, I will buy the persons coffee behind me in the coffee line, or bring someone flowers to someone who isn’t expecting anything but my presence. It’s a gift of love and kindness.

May the year ahead be full of unexpected gifts at an unexpected time.

View at Medium.com

© Anita Adams 2018

Last Day on Earth – A Dream

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I’ve been working on crafting a Dream I had last year sometime, and although it is not finished the essence of it is this:

My Last Day on Earth – A Dream

In the dream, it is my last day on earth. Friends and family are somehow gathered to a potluck to wish me farewell. It’s evening, and I’m waiting with the hostess at a house, circa 1950’s on top of a Town Mountain. As I wait in the house, I am pacing in a dimly lit dining room, walking and gazing out a bank of three windows. Everything in the house is either white, gray or brown. Pine wooden floors, white shiplap walls, brown antique wooden door. There’s a sense in me and others of peace and a knowingness that all is well. Being a woman of faith, I understand death is inevitable.

As friends and family gather bringing casseroles, beverages, vegetable plates, salads and desserts, they enter through the brown wooden door and place their dishes on a long white wooden dining table.  We look at each other and smile in silent reverence, as I continue to walk gently in front of the windows, and it dawns on me that this will also be the last sunset I will see here on earth.

Two of my daughter’s childhood friends come in with a magenta card and hand it to me. As I read the card, filled with reflections of what I’ve meant to them in their life, I notice it also contains $98. The $98 puzzles me and still is a questionable piece of this dream. Just as I finish reading the card, hugging and loving on them, I notice the light in the room begins to change to a glow.

An urgency rises in me to get to the bank of three windows to view my last sunset. This is how it appeared to me in the dream (I took this photo in 2011):

Sunset Shades at Max Patch

Feeling grateful to see these rainbow hues of my last sunset on earth, another question arises in me before the sun sets.  It is this:  “How do I wish to live or leave this day?”

©Anita Adams 2017