We Can Be Kind
BY DAVID FRIEDMAN
When I think about “Hope,” I find the word itself to be challenging, in that it implies that there’s something we need that we don’t have now and are “hoping” to find in the future. I prefer to focus on “Faith,” which to me is the knowing that everything we need is right here, right now, in this present moment.
The only place we ever live life is in the present, and in that present, the ONLY place we experience life is inside of ourselves, as thoughts and sensations that are “observed” by who we really are, an invisible, infinite, unshakeable, unchangeable, eternal consciousness that observes those thoughts and sensations. Anything that appears to happen “outside” of ourselves, is actually only experienced inside of ourselves. Another way of putting it is that when we look at the world, all we’re really seeing is what we think and what we feel. Hence all the different political opinions, all the different levels of fear are out-pictured for each of us in the world we “see.” But that world is really only going on inside of us, and that is the only place in which we can work on it.
If we think of what we see in the world as a mirror of our thoughts and feelings, I’m sure we could all agree that when you see something you don’t like in a mirror, you don’t try to change the mirror. You change what’s being reflected in it. You. And when you do that, the mirror must change, because it’s nothing more than a reflection of what’s in front of it.
Before Corona Virus came to the forefront, the big point of contention on Facebook was politics. Some people were having civil discourse, others were attacking, defending, insulting, insisting they were right and vehemently stating that anyone who didn’t see it their way was wrong. When the conversation shifted to Corona Virus, it was interesting to see that most people carried their former tone and way of seeing things right over to this conversation. Some people looked at it objectively, others took a strong stand, in a militant manner, on one side or another, often based on their fear but defended as fact, and soon the same back and forth angry, judgmental, uncivil conversations were occurring around this subject as had occurred around politics. It made it clear to me that whatever is happening in the world is an out-picturing of what each individual is thinking.
To me, politics, Corona Virus, whatever, are all symptoms of a much bigger issue that is at hand, and that issue is about how we must come together as people, as a country, as a world. Spirit is constantly giving us opportunities to unite. Many times those opportunities look like disasters, but often it is those “disasters” that offer us the greatest opportunities to heal. To me, the place to avail ourselves of those opportunities is right here, right now, in the present moment. And the key to taking those opportunities is to be Kind.
Kind does not mean to be nice, to be sweet, to do something for another person at our own expense. Kindness is a state of being. Hence my song “We Can BE Kind.” It’s not about doing, although doing is often a result of being kind. But in BEING kind, we see that deep down inside we’re all the same and we all want the same thing, even when it doesn’t look that way. Underneath all our fighting, all our fear, we want to be connected, we want to find serenity and we want to live in a world where we all recognize and respect each other’s humanity. And it is up to each of us, individually, to create that world inside of ourselves. When we do that, it must out-picture, because the “outside” world is nothing more than what we see inside ourselves. When we choose Kindness, we immediately, right here and right now, are living in the world of kindness, because we are creating it. Nothing to hope for. Nothing to wait for. The effect in our experience is instant.
With the challenge of Corona Virus being just the latest in the constant parade of challenges that are part of our earthly existence (and that I choose to think of as opportunities for growth and healing) there are so many areas in which we don’t have a choice. Life happens on life’s terms and try as we might, we are never going to stop it from happening.
With so many things we can’t control, there is one thing we can control, one thing we can choose. No matter the circumstance, no matter how we feel, no matter what comes at us, we can ALWAYS choose to be kind. And to me, that makes all the difference.
David Friedman
Composer and Author
