The first act of kindness is to connect.

There is a separation between each of us and connection bridges that separation.

Kindness lives in consciousness which means no habit can be an act of kindness. A habit can look kind but it’s not kind because there is no living, only-in-this-moment kindness in it. A habit of connection offers only an appearance or a memory of connection. Consciousness is always an experience of Nativity, of innocent newness.   Conscious connection births kindness between our souls and in the world.

Kindness lives in reverence.  We must revere the separation if we are to connect kindly.

Tonight think about a close friend, one you connect with so easily. Bring your loving attention to all that separates the two of you.  I suggest you write down the images of separation. Perhaps create a collage or drawing of all that separates the two of you. Now imagine the many bridges arching over the river of separation.  Describe each bridge and ask if it is a habit or a new, more conscious act of kindness that will allow your separate selves and the friendship to flourish.

Now imagine connecting with a stranger, the person sitting in front of you at the movies, the person in the car in the next lane, the person in the silly video on Facebook, the person who made the wrapping paper that you tore off your Christmas present.  Now the separations seem so great, obvious and beyond bridging.  Here is where acts of connection become thoughts that reach out, take in and revere.  These are heart thoughts and they have an energy of kindness that shapes circumstances and nurtures environments that  allow all of humanity to flourish. They are elegantly conscious and truly unselfish.

And what about connecting with nature.  How do you connect with a mountain range, a blade of grass, an earthworm, a bolt of lightning or a lake that is drying up?

What makes the Holy Nights holy is the extraordinary degree of connection with all the Beings of the Spiritual World over these twelve nights.  How do you connect with these beings? Prayer, contemplation, meditation and what else during the rest of the year, but during the Holy Nights it is more of a penetrating warmth and a conversation.  Are you a shepherd conversing warmly with the heavenly hosts, a magi understanding the wisdom of a guiding star, or do you hold close to your heart your own angel? 

More than anything, over these Holy Nights with our focus on kindness we must realize every act of kindness for nature, a friend or a stranger connects us with Spirit, Source, God.

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We each need to give our hearts to the act of connecting. On this first Holy Night, imagine your ways of connecting.