How Kind Do We Have To Be?

I was driving down Tamiami Trail on my way to pick up my kids. I was stopped at a light. Two cars on a side street were waiting to merge into my lane. Wanting to be a nice person, I waved at the driver of the first car, giving him the go-ahead to pull in front of me.

As he’s doing this, I’m thinking, “Okay, I did my good deed for the day. I let one car in. Now it’s my turn. The next guy has to let the next person in. After all, fair is fair. The protocol for kindness in this circumstance, the agreed upon social convention is you let one car in and then you get to go. No harm, no foul.”

So, why was I feeling uncomfortable? Because I know that the path to my joy, my inner peace, and my prosperity is a path of generosity and compassion without judgment, evaluation, or conditions of any kind. I know that I have a choice now to be even kinder than I had just been, and that it’s really not in my best interests to resist that choice.

“Wouldn’t it be nice,” I told myself, “to just let the second car in also, right now, no fuss, no bother, will cost me a whole extra 5 seconds of my life, it would make things easier for the stranger in the other car, why not do it, what’s the big deal?”

I decided to let this second car into the lane in front of me. She smiled and thanked me, which felt really good, but that was the icing on the cake. I was feeling pretty good the moment I made the decision to put my ego away and just be kinder and more generous.

Certainly, there is no right or wrong in terms of how many cars we let into our lane. It’s not right or wrong to let no cars in. Legally, we have the right of way. The issue is, how do our decisions, our choices, make us feel about ourselves?

My decision to let the second car in made me feel great. I felt it represented progress in my releasing my ego’s resistance to being more caring, more sharing, more loving, more accepting and more forgiving. I felt it also represented progress in my role modeling behaviors reflecting greater courtesy and cooperation, which, if adopted by others, will strengthen the fabric of society.

Strengthening the fabric of society is nice but the main point is that by choosing to be kinder, more generous, more gracious and more respectful of others, above and beyond the standards we have set for ourselves, we will discover our world changing before our eyes, becoming more joyous and fragrant.

MONEY MONEY MONEY

you need not be concerned about money. Be concerned, instead, about joy.

How much joy are you experiencing in this moment? How much joy are you bringing to this moment? The joy you experience will be the joy you bring. If you are waiting for joy to be brought to you, you do not understand what you are doing here. And if you think that joy has anything to do with money, you really do not understand what you are doing here.

There is a person waiting right now, right this very minute, for you to uplift them. Do that…and you will be rich.

Really. I mean, really. I’m not making this up.