Sunday, March 8, 2009

The Kindness of Friends and Strangers

People in the blogosphere have been amazingly kind to me this past week!

One of my creative heros loves the same wonderful, quirky place I do. So I wrote him an email. I just wanted to tell him how much it meant to me and thank him for presenting the place in a way I hadn't thought of before. I had no expectation of a response. This is a guy who's amazingly busy. He sometimes gets 300+ comments on his blog for goodness sake! And what did he do, but write back a wonderful response! I'm still smiling!

There is a circle of ladies with beautiful blogs, ones I visit every day, who regularly reach out to each other to say a kind word, give encouragement, do artistic swaps, or make someone laugh! Sometimes it's in their blog and sometimes in their comments. I have so appreciated the notice taken of an art project I am involved in. It's not tons of folks commenting, but its enough.

A member of my church has started a new position. She wasn't sure she really wanted to do it, but we really needed her and she agreed. Today was her first day and she did a fabulous job. I told her so after the service and she had such a surprised tone in her voice, saying how everyone had been so kind.

We shouldn't be surprised at the kindness of friends and strangers. People are kind. They want to say nice things to others, they want to share kind words and pretty little trinkets. People want to reach out to others who share the same aethetics or world views. I heard on NPR that people who blog are actually happier because they feel a sense of connectiveness with other people.

Even as flawed a character as Blanche Dubois, stated, "I have always depended on the kindness of strangers. " It's not such a bad way to live. And if strangers can make one feel appreciated, think of how much we can make our friends feel loved. I may be on my way to turning this into an essay for This I Believe.

So be nice to strangers and even nicer to your friends. After all,". . . In the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make." (With a title like Tiny Dancer, I sorta had to use a lyrical quote, ya know?).

4 comments:

Leslie said...

Thanks for your sweet comment today. I appreciate it.

Unknown said...

And, in the end,
The love you take,
is equal to the love
you make.

My beloved Beatles, thank you so much for including that. One of my favorite lyrics of all time.

You are so right; I think that we all rely on the kindness of others, to give it and to receive it. I once wrote an entry for This, I believe....... never submitted it, but I want to as well someday...... those stories, some like my own, are tremendous...it amazes me at times how similar we are as humans, I think that makes it so true about blogging and contentment!

I like your spirit.... rock on, tiny dancer!

Susan said...

I just read this quote on someone else's blog and thought of you:
"We are the ones we have been waiting for." -Hopi Prayer

Tiny Dancer said...

I love the Hopi prayer Susan. And so much nicer than "We are the ones our parents warned us about." :-/

Thank you all for your kind comments. They really make me feel wonderful!