“Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.”~Desmond Tutu Yesterday, as I was ordering a coffee, an older lady came into t…
Source: Kindness: The Time For It Is NOW
Sirena bracketed her post with a Desmond Tutu quote and one by Ralph Waldo Emerson reminding us kindness is a powerful antidote for many of the challenges we face in the world. A kind heart allows us to put the human face on others and see them as people.
Several years ago during a particularly cold winter, Kathy and I boosted people’s batteries several times. We did it because it was the right thing to do without consideration as to what we might receive back.
One day, on the way home from a hockey game in rural Alberta, I lost control of the car and we ended up stuck on the edge of the ditch. It was cold, we were on a narrow piece of road at the top of a hill, and there was truck traffic. The first vehicle by had a chain and two-way radio to let truckers know we were there and got us out.
As we drove on, we noted that the earlier acts of helping people with dead batteries had somehow come around and, in our moment of need, someone acted kindly towards us.
When we are mindful, we recall that others need our kindness and that the kind acts echo through time and space.
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About ivonprefontaine
In keeping with bell hooks and Noam Chomsky, I consider myself a public and dissident intellectual. Part of my work is to move beyond (transcend) institutional dogmas that bind me to defend freedom, raising my voice to be heard on behalf of those who seek equity and justice in all their forms.
I completed my PhD in Philosophy of Leadership Studies at Gonzaga University, Spokane, WA. My dissertation and research was how teachers experience becoming teachers and their role as leaders.
I focus on leading, communicating, and innovating in organizations. This includes mindfuful servant-leadership, World Cafe events, Appreciative Inquiry, and expressing one's self through creativity. I offer retreats, workshops, and presentations that can be tailored to your organzations specific needs.
I published peer reviewed articles about schools as learning organizations, currere as an ethical pursuit, and hope as an essential element of adult eductaion. I published three poems and am currently preparing my poetry to publish as an anthology of poetry.
I present on mindful leadership, servant leadership, schools as learning organizations, how teachers experience becoming teachers, assessement, and critical thinking. I facilitate mindfulness, hospitality retreats. and World Cafe Events using Appreciative Inquiry.
I am writing and researching about various forms of leadership, how teachers inform and form their identity as a particular teacher, schools as learning organizations, hope and its anticipatory relationship with the future, and hope as an essential element in learning.
ivonprefontaine
Teacher as Transformer 
Gift, giver and receiver are all equal the Buddhists believe
They are. One of my favourite educational writers is David Jardine who uses Buddhist writing to support that concept as an important aspect of teaching.
Dear Ivon, Thank you so much for your support and for the inspiration of your practice of kindness–never more needed than now! Peace….
You are most welcome. I enjoy reading your posts about dancing and creativity that you share with others. Take care.
We need more kindness in the world, and it begins with us. As Mother Teresa said, “Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.”
It is interesting how that sentiment echoes for us in many readings and actions.
I can remember, very vividly, two of my ‘school teachers’, amongst(unfortunately) many. They stand out in my memory because of their kindnesses toward me. A dyslectic child (unknown then) must have been quite a burden, yet, these two did all within their power to provide me with, yes, love and support. Kindness is a balm that soothes and restores. It requires so little to give, and yet so much is received.
I talked to someone who told me about a friend who returned to a small town so her teachers could teach her children with special needs. It was not that those teachers had special training, rather they engaged in caring relationships with children, making all the difference.
Well done to her, Ivon. Indeed, this makes all the difference; as you’ve said.
Thank you for the reminder and Thank you for sharing the story, Ivon!
You are welcome on both counts Amy.
…kind of reminds me of: “Happiness is the only good. The time to be happy is now. The place to be happy is here. The way to be happy is to make others so.” ― Robert Ingersoll
That is a beautiful sentiment. We do not find happiness on our own. We do it in the company of others.
Thank you for the follow.
You are welcome. Thank you in turn.
Lovely
Thank you.