February is “acts of kindness” month on my work calendar and February also ushered in the season of Lent. As I’ve read my Lenten devotional each day, and had that calendar up on the wall, I’ve realized that just maybe someone is trying to send me a message. I’ve also been reading some poetry about kindness.

From the reading I’ve done, I can see there is a tie between sorrow and kindness. In order to be truly kind, we have to see our own sorrow in the sorrows of others, maybe even those we don’t know. Kindness comes in small everyday actions, but kindness is a an action we choose to take.

To have kindness as my constant companion, I have to be able to see the other side of sorrows. I’ve experienced so much kindness in my life, and as I think about those kindnesses, many of them are linked to sorrows:

Karen texted me scriptures that held me, even in my shock and grief after my sister, Cathy’s, death. Mary stayed with me overnight in the hospital after major surgery. Robert gave me that spring cactus all in bloom after my dad died. And even when I was just a scrawny little girl, Uncle Bob and Aunt Sandy opened their home and made Cathy and me part of their family when we had to go away for a summer. And Kate, always a hand-written note on some beautiful mountain card just when I need it.

Be kind. Do kindness.