As we all know, the earthquake in Haiti has devastated the island and has left tens of thousands of people dead, homeless, and in an even more grave state than before. Naturally, this saddened people globally and now people are rallying to come to the aid of Haitians.
Why is it that it always takes something like that for people to share their humanity for those less fortunate than themselves? Hell, why can't people just be kind a caring period?
Coming from a Jamaican family, I know first hand the importance of taking care of your own and those around you. Jamaicans are a proud people, but never too proud to give and help others. Jamaican families that leave JA always send barrels of food and clothing back to their family and community to ensure people are taken care of. If they can't send the item that way, they'll find someone who's going home and ask them to carry things for them. It's a cultural practice that is almost innate. I know many other islands have the same practice, so why can't people here do it for their neighbours and/or communities?
I live less than 1o minutes from a town the produces the high concentration of blueberries in the nation. Each year, these farms use migrant workers from South America and Haiti to cultivate said farms. Last summer I was plagued with the thought of what to do with several bags of clothes and shoes that I no longer had need for, but didn't really want to give them to the local agencies as I know for fact that some of them aren't dispensing the items to the intended recipients. After driving through what's locally called Haitian Nation; the area where the Haitians workers are housed, I decided I would give them the clothing/shoes. I practiced my French and delivered the clothing/shoes to the very grateful people who thanked me profusely for my kindness.
Doing this brought so much joy to my soul and I felt good for my choice of recipients. This is something I've decided I will continue to do every summer. Sadly, I'll be doing it under far more grave conditions this year. The clothing/shoes that I would have given locally will now be sent to Florida to a dear friend who is Haitian and still currently waiting to hear from his father and other family/friends. The toiletries that I planned to send to my friend serving in Afganistan will also go to my friend in Florida as I'm sure they'll be in greater need there.
I'm sick and tired of people just jumping on the bandwagon to help others in their times of crisis and need. Family, let's perform acts of kindness daily. I'm sure each of us has something we can give to others in our neighbourhoods, communities, and such daily, so let's be thankful and grateful for the abundance we have and find it in our hearts to pay it forward in some way. This is what love for humanity is all about and we must work together globally to ensure others can be equally blessed.
My heart is full today y'all. I feel personally affected by this as I lost family in Jamaica last year with the massive storms. I can't watch telly or be on the web as flashbacks of worrying for my family come back to mind or even the devastation of Katrina brings me to tears. So again I say and implore each of you who read this blog to do something; anything for someone else. A small deed can go a long way.
It's all possible!
Showing posts with label humanity. Show all posts
Showing posts with label humanity. Show all posts
14 January 2010
23 April 2007
Kindness
In the wake of the recent occurrences at Virginia Tech and the Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX; I'm still trying to comes to terms with the excessive violent acts that are defiling our society. Sometimes the signs are there; and ignored, while other times the signs are more subtle and it's the one simple thing that sets the person off.
In recalling some of my own angry outbursts, I know that sometimes the signs were there and others ignored them or I made light of things. On other occasions, I internalized and then someone said the wrong thing at the wrong time and I lost it. Fortunately, my outburst were just harsh words, but if I were a different person mentally, the results could have been physically explosive.
Nowadays, people have become more and more detached favoring emails and text messages over actual verbal conversations. With the increase in video games, people interact less in real-time; favoring online interaction. Gone are days were people get to know their neighbors moreso than saying "hi". We've simply lost the need or desire to bond, extend kindness; a kind word or deed. Our social interactions lend more to including alcohol as a means of letting lose or relieving stress. People simply don't openly communicate anymore and it's sad.
I've made a personal committment to extend acts of kindnesss wherever I am. Last week I helped a woman in WalMart retrieve an item out of her reach. It was funny to see the look of shock and then see her smile. I gave money to someone who needed exact change in order to get through the checkout faster. I helped a handicapped women move her items from her power wheelchair to a cart and pushed it out to the sidewalk for her to get them to her car. Each act was performed without really thinking about it and it made me feel good to help others. I gave compliments to those who performed good customer service instead of only thinking of the times where I had bad service. All of these things can have a positive effect on the receiver and give them a chance to see that there is still good in the world. Those simple acts would have prevented someone from beating their spouse or child, committing suicide, or some other negative act.
Random acts of kindess should NOT be random; it should simply be the right/nice thing to do.
I came across the following as I read my Daily Word this morning and think it sums everything up nicely...
Do a deed of simple kindness;
Though its end you may not see,
It will reach like widening ripples
Down a long eternity. —Anon.
Kindness is the oil that takes the friction out of life.
In recalling some of my own angry outbursts, I know that sometimes the signs were there and others ignored them or I made light of things. On other occasions, I internalized and then someone said the wrong thing at the wrong time and I lost it. Fortunately, my outburst were just harsh words, but if I were a different person mentally, the results could have been physically explosive.
Nowadays, people have become more and more detached favoring emails and text messages over actual verbal conversations. With the increase in video games, people interact less in real-time; favoring online interaction. Gone are days were people get to know their neighbors moreso than saying "hi". We've simply lost the need or desire to bond, extend kindness; a kind word or deed. Our social interactions lend more to including alcohol as a means of letting lose or relieving stress. People simply don't openly communicate anymore and it's sad.
I've made a personal committment to extend acts of kindnesss wherever I am. Last week I helped a woman in WalMart retrieve an item out of her reach. It was funny to see the look of shock and then see her smile. I gave money to someone who needed exact change in order to get through the checkout faster. I helped a handicapped women move her items from her power wheelchair to a cart and pushed it out to the sidewalk for her to get them to her car. Each act was performed without really thinking about it and it made me feel good to help others. I gave compliments to those who performed good customer service instead of only thinking of the times where I had bad service. All of these things can have a positive effect on the receiver and give them a chance to see that there is still good in the world. Those simple acts would have prevented someone from beating their spouse or child, committing suicide, or some other negative act.
Random acts of kindess should NOT be random; it should simply be the right/nice thing to do.
I came across the following as I read my Daily Word this morning and think it sums everything up nicely...
Do a deed of simple kindness;
Though its end you may not see,
It will reach like widening ripples
Down a long eternity. —Anon.
Kindness is the oil that takes the friction out of life.
03 January 2007
All Love For Good
"Isn't all love for good
How do we get this misunderstood
God doesn't care who we love
Just that we do"
-Micheal Tomlinson (Calling Me Back to the Wild CD 1995)
As I listened to this song (it inspired today's post), which was written by Mr. Tomlinson in memory of his sister who was a lesbian and it caused a family divide. I watched Family Stone last night which was a surprisingly good movie. I recalled the scene at the dinner table where the very bougie Meredith questioned the relationship between an interracial couple who wanted to adopt a little boy. Not only was the couple interracial, but they were gay and the white partner was deaf. By her standards, there were so many things "wrong" with that relationship and for every time she tried to clean up her comments, she progressively made a bad situation worse.
Why is it that we consider anything that we wouldn't do or can't fathom wrong? Aside from a few things, which are inherrantly wrong, (child sexual acts to name one), why does whom one chooses to love have to be an issue? From everything I've read in life, it says that love is BLIND. So if it's truly blind, then it does not see color, gender, age, or handicap. Love does not see; it feels.
All too often we allow ourselves to get caught up in what someone else says/thinks is right or wrong and that in itself is wrong. It shows that we are incapable of thinking for ourselves and that we are all lambs waiting to be slaughtered because we follow and not lead. Think about how politricks (intentionally spelled) is used to determine someone's worth, meanwhile we've seen many politrickions shamed for the same thing they supposedly have an issue against. Hell, we have a president who's right hand man has a lesbian daughter who's pregnant. How can he call this man his friend/ally when the pres stands against the things that the mans daughter is? Hypocricy at its very finest. There are preachers denoucning homosexuality, but we find out they've had a gay lover for many years. These very people talk a good game on tolerance and love for humanity, yet their actions speak the polar opposite.
Love gets tossed around like a four letter word and instead of being embraced and used for the greater good, it's discarded and disregarded because someone has an opinion on how it should be practiced or displayed. We can show more love and humanity for an animal we'll hold hostage in a zoo or in our homes, but be can't love someone because they're of another color, orientation, age, etc. What kind of bullshit is that? It's appalling what is happening in and to the world and we wonder why there is such a major shift in the increase of acts of nature. It's because Mother Nature is reclaiming what is rightfully hers and she'd rather perform a true act of cleansing instead of allowing self-righteous and indignant people to do it and tell her what love truly is.
The day of reckoning is closer than we can imagine!!!
How do we get this misunderstood
God doesn't care who we love
Just that we do"
-Micheal Tomlinson (Calling Me Back to the Wild CD 1995)
As I listened to this song (it inspired today's post), which was written by Mr. Tomlinson in memory of his sister who was a lesbian and it caused a family divide. I watched Family Stone last night which was a surprisingly good movie. I recalled the scene at the dinner table where the very bougie Meredith questioned the relationship between an interracial couple who wanted to adopt a little boy. Not only was the couple interracial, but they were gay and the white partner was deaf. By her standards, there were so many things "wrong" with that relationship and for every time she tried to clean up her comments, she progressively made a bad situation worse.
Why is it that we consider anything that we wouldn't do or can't fathom wrong? Aside from a few things, which are inherrantly wrong, (child sexual acts to name one), why does whom one chooses to love have to be an issue? From everything I've read in life, it says that love is BLIND. So if it's truly blind, then it does not see color, gender, age, or handicap. Love does not see; it feels.
All too often we allow ourselves to get caught up in what someone else says/thinks is right or wrong and that in itself is wrong. It shows that we are incapable of thinking for ourselves and that we are all lambs waiting to be slaughtered because we follow and not lead. Think about how politricks (intentionally spelled) is used to determine someone's worth, meanwhile we've seen many politrickions shamed for the same thing they supposedly have an issue against. Hell, we have a president who's right hand man has a lesbian daughter who's pregnant. How can he call this man his friend/ally when the pres stands against the things that the mans daughter is? Hypocricy at its very finest. There are preachers denoucning homosexuality, but we find out they've had a gay lover for many years. These very people talk a good game on tolerance and love for humanity, yet their actions speak the polar opposite.
Love gets tossed around like a four letter word and instead of being embraced and used for the greater good, it's discarded and disregarded because someone has an opinion on how it should be practiced or displayed. We can show more love and humanity for an animal we'll hold hostage in a zoo or in our homes, but be can't love someone because they're of another color, orientation, age, etc. What kind of bullshit is that? It's appalling what is happening in and to the world and we wonder why there is such a major shift in the increase of acts of nature. It's because Mother Nature is reclaiming what is rightfully hers and she'd rather perform a true act of cleansing instead of allowing self-righteous and indignant people to do it and tell her what love truly is.
The day of reckoning is closer than we can imagine!!!
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