Happy New Year!

“Love and kindness are never wasted.  They always make a difference.  They bless the one who receives them, and they bless you, the giver.”

~ Barbara De Angelis

As we look back on another year, I have no doubt that some of our most treasured moments are those that involved kindness.  I wish you a new year filled with health and joy, peace and kindness.  And lots of love.

Kindness and a Purse

“Treat others as you wish to be treated.  Don’t just be nice, but be kind to other people.  That can be so rewarding.”

~ Mary Lambert

One of my friends texted me recently and included a photo of a beautiful new black purse.  She asked me if I wanted it.  She does this from time to time.  She has handbags that she has never used and she will ask me if I want them.  Yes, I said, to this latest gift.  And so it arrived a couple of days later.  Her thoughtfulness made me smile as I know it will again every time I wear my new purse.

Kindness and Christmas Tea

“Tea time is a chance to slow down, pull back and appreciate our surroundings.”

~ Letitia Baldrige

A woman I know has been taking her mother and her children to afternoon tea during Christmas week for the past several years.  When the woman called to make the reservation, she was asked if they were celebrating a special occasion.  “Just Christmas and my mother,” she answered.  At the end of their tea, the waiter brought out a beautiful dessert to celebrate.  And then he gave the woman several extra bags of tea “for tomorrow morning.”

Kindness and a Good Man Remembered

“The best portion of a good man’s life: his little, nameless unremembered acts of kindness and love.”

~ William Wordsworth

This is definitely the time of year for memories and nostalgia, but I was surprised at the kindness I recently remembered.  I was backing up into my parking space and, as always, trying to make sure I did not hit the wall of my parking space.  I guess it was the time of year as well as what I was doing that made me remember a kindness that my stepfather had done for my mother many years ago.  They lived in a house with a small garage and, each evening as she came home from work, my mother would carefully ease her car into the garage.  She needed to get the car in far enough that the garage door would close, but not so far in that she would hit the washer and dryer that were right in front of the car.  Each night, my stepfather would stand at the garage door and guide her in.  He finally came up with an ingenious solution.  He hung a tennis ball on a string to the ceiling of the garage.  He measured it, so that it would fall exactly where my mother’s windshield should line up, so that her car both fit in the garage and missed banging into the washer and dryer.  A small kindness, but very typical of my stepfather, a gentle and kind man we all loved, who died nearly 16 years ago.  I know that he would be surprised that I still remember the hanging tennis ball.  But sometimes – in fact, so many times, it’s those small kindnesses that make life easier for others.  And we remember.

Sibling Kindness at Christmas

“Christmas is doing a little something extra for someone.”

~ Charles M. Schulz

A mom friend recently shared a story about kindness and her children that warmed her heart.  On Christmas morning, my friend’s son, the younger of her two children, noticed that he had three of a certain gift and his older sister, a teenager, had only one.  He told his mother that he would give his sister one of his presents, so that they would each have two of that particular toy.

Kindness the Day After…

“Christmas, my child, is love in action.  Every time we love, every time we give, it’s Christmas.”

~ Dale Evans

Through a not-fully awake haze the day after Christmas, I heard noise in our living room.  Not loud noise, more like scampering about.  Imagine my surprise -- and delight -- when I found a little elf, plastic bag in hand, picking up the post-Christmas mess.  It felt like Christmas morning!

Kindness and Christmas

“Christmas is the spirit of giving without a thought of getting.  It is happiness because we see joy in people.  It is forgetting self and finding time for others.  It is discarding the meaningless and stressing the true values.”

~ Thomas S. Monson

As much as we try not to, sometimes Christmas becomes about the gifts – or at least too much of our time is taken up with thinking about, stressing about and buying presents.  But every so often, I come across people who seem to get beyond that.  At a recent Christmas tea, I sat next to a woman who stopped buying gifts several years ago.  She spends her Christmas in different ways with people she loves and doing things she thinks are meaningful.  Our hostess at the Christmas tea values time spent with those she loves, so she planned on a midday get together just to be with the people who are important to her.  Spending time with those we love – sharing the love – may just be one of the best ways to commemorate what Christmas is all about.