Pay the price of continuing offering kindness

Gravestone in local cemetery

Yesterday Melanie and I walked around five miles, starting from Bloedel Donovan Park and then through the Bayview Cemetery near Whatcom Falls Park. Although cool and breezy, the sunshine made it seem warmer than it was. For the first time since I've walked around the area, we spent some time wandering among the headstones. We found this one, with a sweet message that inspires today's post. Jim Garrett has this message to all:

If I leave any legacy, let it be kindness. As a man entitled to little, I was given much. Pay the price of continuing offering kindness. We all need it. —Jim Garrett

I have long felt that truth: if we can be anything, why not be kind? What keeps us from always having empathy for others, since we all suffer just by being born and traveling through life? It got me to thinking, and of course I went online looking to see if this man was famous enough to have a website. He doesn't, but I did find a book entitled, "This Book Will Make You Kinder: An Empathy Handbook," and ordered it from Amazon. It will be here tomorrow, and I should be looking for something to read about that time. I'm engrossed in a very good book right now, Kristin Hannah's latest best seller, The Four Winds. She is a very prolific author and has a formula for most of her books, which makes me hopeful that this historical novel about the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression will have a somewhat positive ending. She sure knows how to paint word pictures that take the reader into the world she creates. 

As I had been thinking about kindness, I noticed many times while reading the book yesterday how the author points out that a simple gesture of kindness to another can make all the difference in someone's life, sometimes for a long time to come. Although Elsa, the protagonist in Hannah's novel, has two children and fought for every scrap of food while living in a migrant camp in California, she shared what she had with others. There is much in the story that reminds me of the severe inequities we face in our world today: some people have so much while others are homeless, wandering the streets without hope. I see them here every single day.

Sometimes I think I need to read stories about real hardships to be reminded of how fortunate I am. Not only do I have a roof over my head and enough food to eat, I also share my life with a wonderful person who takes good care of me in so many ways. As I was suffering through the first few days after having a tooth extraction (no fun at all), he quietly looked after me without being asked, just because. It has now been ten days since the event, and other than having a pretty huge hole in my jaw (which I am told will eventually fill in), I am no longer in pain or needing special care.

I am also curious about what Jim Garrett meant about "paying the price of continuing offering kindness." What is the price? What do I have to give up by being an empathetic person? Hmmm. Perhaps it's that I cannot help but see myself in the suffering of another, and there is plenty of that. We are all human beings sharing the current situation of being in the middle of a viral pandemic, with political and humanitarian ramifications for many of us. When I watch the news these days, I am struck by how many people are suffering from it, India being the current epicenter, and wondering how long it will take for us to emerge from this period and what the long-term effects will be. 

Here in the US, we are slowly coming out from hibernation, and many of us for the first time in over a year are able to share hugs with our friends. Many of us are fully vaccinated now and looking forward to being able to hike and carpool together to some of the more distant hikes in the wilderness. I just learned that the Canadian border will remain closed for the foreseeable future, until Canadians and Americans have reached around 70% of our population being vaccinated. That is not too far away, I suspect, but for now I still cannot visit Canada, just a few miles north of here. Funny how I didn't really care much while I had the choice, but now I feel deprived. 

This year we Senior Trailblazers will gather to celebrate the unofficial start of summer, Memorial Day, by gathering outdoors for our annual potluck in Lake Padden Park, but this time we will not share food but simply bring our own lunch and will gather under the pavilion and talk about the last year's deprivations and opportunities for a better summer this year. Although I didn't have a chance to visit some of my favorite hikes, I was able to get out almost every Thursday with my friend Melanie and sometimes a few others, to enjoy our forests and get some exercise. I do wonder if I still have what it takes to make it to Church Meadow and Excelsior Pass, both more than 3,000 feet in elevation gain and loss. I guess I'll be finding out soon enough; our snowpack in the mountains is finally beginning to recede after a very snowy winter. Usually we make our first forays up the Mt. Baker Highway around Memorial Day or a bit later. We are all looking forward to being able to hike in the wilderness once again.

This afternoon I am scheduled to receive a massage from my usual practitioner, and I am looking forward to it. It's a good thing I get a reminder about it or I would have completely forgotten. These days my memory for events slips more often, and without my calendar to remind me, I'd be forgetting even more of them. The days and weeks seem to fly by, and here we are almost ready for summer! That means my friends in the Southern Hemisphere are preparing for winter. That still astounds me, that it's not simply summer everywhere in the world. My little corner of the world is just that: my little corner, and I need to expand my horizons a bit to be reminded that we are not all getting ready for hot days and warm nights. In Canberra, for example, my blogging friend there will be eventually blowing bubbles, letting them freeze, and sharing them on her blog. I look forward to it every year.

Well, I guess I've wandered around in my mental corridors long enough and need to start thinking about the rest of my day. It's cloudy today, with rain in the forecast for tonight and tomorrow, so I am again really happy that I had such a wonderful walk yesterday in the sunshine. I will finish Hannah's book today and spend some time in my vegetable garden making sure the weeds don't take over. I always look forward to hearing how my dear readers are faring in the world, and I also enjoy reading several blogs to see what's going on in your lives. My dear partner still sleeps next to me, my tea is gone, and the day beckons. I do hope that whatever you do today, you will take the time to spread a little kindness, and pay the price along with me for continuing offering kindness. Be well until we meet again next week.