Eight weeks ago, I was still wondering what the theme for this year’s Inner Christmas would be. I keep a list of possible themes adding to it throughout the year.  Some years it is easy to choose, but not this year until the moment I thought of kindness.  What I felt at that moment sounded like choirs of angels singing “yes”. Then came the resounding question in my soul…”How do you imagine kindness?”

It was hard and shocking to realize that with almost 7 decades of living and contemplating, I had never spent much thought on the meaning and expression of kindness. If we are not kind, can we rightfully call ourselves human? Yet I hadn’t a clue about the deep meaning of kindness.

Everyday since the choice of theme was made, I have been wondering about kindness.  I knew I had to go way beyond the dictionary which defines kindness as

A quality or act of being friendly, generous, and considerate nature • archaic affectionate; loving.

ORIGIN Old English gecynde ‘natural, native’; in Middle English the earliest sense is ‘well born or well bred,’ whence ‘well disposed by nature, courteous, gentle, benevolent.’

I must admit this definition would have sufficed my need to understand kindness from an ordinary consciousness.  But wondering about kindness from the consciousness of the Holy Nights requires so much more than the ordinary and the defining.  I had to consider and enter the mysteries of kindness, the great imaginations of kindness. Kindness had to be something extraordinary and indefinable.  I needed to ask wisdom-seeking questions about kindness.

I want to share with you how I now understand kindness because it is this understanding that will shape each message I write during the Holy Nights.

Kindness is an act that cultivates, establishes and nurtures the circumstances and environment for the flourishing of an individual and the whole of humanity.

Kindness shapes circumstances of safety, calmness, wakefulness and nourishment.

Kindness creates an environment of light, warmth, resonance, and force.

Kindness emanates from our thoughts, our words, and our deeds.

Kindness is a way of being and a way of living.

Kindness is NOT merely sentimental or sweet, polite or political, nor is it impressive or heroic. It is not picky nor exclusive.  It is not just about  being friendly, generous or considerate of your own kind, those you like and identify with.  Kindness is something you would offer to any and every human being regardless of their difference from or commonality with you or your kind.

Kindness appears as a gesture of universal harmony manifesting in a specific moment for the benefit of a specific recipient.  What I found so important was to realize that the donor of kindness and its recipient need to be seen as representatives of humanity so that the meaning of the act of kindness radiates out to energetically foster the flourishing of every individual, the whole of humanity. Kindness is specific and universal simultaneously.

Do we live in an unkind world so that we – each one of us – on our own might awaken in our souls an imagination of acts of kindness, of living kindly, of being kind?

Coming to the Holy Nights and the Inner Christmas Messages at the end of year of acts of violence, terror, greed, domination, neglect, and egotism, can we open our hearts to kindness?

As you read each message over the Holy Nights reflect on the experience as the giver and as the receiver of acts of kindness.  Think of how your soul flourishes when you experience each of the twelve acts of kindness. Bring the messages to the conversations you have with friends and family, with coworkers and collaborators.  Please share them in your social networks.  And add your thoughts and experiences by commenting on the blog.