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 January 28, 2008
Dear Ones,
Here’s the sermon title and description for my February 17th Sunday service. It comes a bit early this month. You can help me out a bit with it, if you’d like to…
"Ax of Kindness"
Monday, February 11th through Sunday, February 17th is Random Acts of Kindness Week. Your assignment, should you choose to accept it: Sometime in that interval before our Sunday service perpetrate some “random acts of kindness,” at least one of them for someone in this congregation. |
 I suppose the stock market could respond favorably to a sudden outpouring of kindness in Fairfield County. It’s worth a try, but even if it doesn’t work quite that way, a little extra kindness in the world certainly isn’t going to hurt. One evening Nancy couldn’t make it to an event for which we had tickets. I turned the extra ticket in at the box office and asked the clerk to give it to the next person who wanted to buy one. I wasn’t thinking, in that moment, that the person sitting next to me would consequently be the one who was given the free ticket! When she took her seat, I introduced myself and she reciprocated. She was a student from Romania. We chatted for a bit as we waited for the show to start (no, she was not familiar with our Romanian “Partner Church” village, Alsoboldogfalva!). Our brief acquaintance was a lasting source of pleasure for me. That moment of kindness and connection turned out to be more memorable than the show!
 There are many ways to make even a few bucks count. Leave a big tip; bake some goodies for your coworkers or for your local fire department; buy the  grocery clerk a treat; pay for someone’s meal; send an unsolicited donation; give a child a backpack full of school supplies; put another quarter in the meter or take a windshield ticket home and pay it. But your act doesn’t have to involve money. There are a lot of little ways to improve a person’s day: do the dishes; throw the paper up onto the porch; give someone your place in line; pay a compliment; write a note of appreciation to someone’s boss; let a car  into the lane in front of you; give a bouquet to a stranger; wash your neighbor’s car; shovel the old lady’s walk; help someone with their coat; ask a nurse if there’s a patient who never gets visitors; bring the trash can back from the curb; offer to help a confused- or lost-looking person.
 The Dalai Lama has said: “This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.” We declare this philosophy too when our Universalist hearts and our Unitarian brains inspire us to lift our voices to affirm together: “Love is the spirit of this church and service its law.”
Be the change,
margie
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