Invisible Acts of Kindness

Caring and Healing

“…I had not considered…that caring for others and going that extra mile for family, friends, and coworkers, or strangers could have a connection to our physical health.  Now I believe that the human spirit needs to develop generosity and compassion to be healthy.  We need to respond to others’ vulnerabilities in the process of addressing and healing our own.”

                          Caroline Myss

                          Invisible Acts of Power

         There has been almost constant coverage of the storm ravaged areas since Wednesday.  One of the most poignant scenes to my mind involved the members of an African American motorcycle gang who had seen the devastation in Pratt City, a suburb of Birmingham, and responded to it personally.  They had set up tents and four or five oil-drum grills and they were out there sweating and grilling.  They simply said, “People got to eat.  We’re going to feed them until we run out of food.”  To look at them, compassion would not be the first word to enter your head.  They were tattooed everywhere and wore bandanas or black do-rags.  Yet, there they were---they hadn’t asked the Red Cross for permission or made a donation through the Hands on Birmingham program---they just loaded up their grills and food and headed into the fray knowing what would give comfort to devastated folks. I’ll bet hungry people could smell those ribs and burgers for miles. 

         To me, the heroes are those who simply show up and do whatever needs to be done.  They give and they receive.  Now and then, I help cook dinner at a men’s shelter downtown---just a simple supper, nothing fancy.  Street people of all stripes come through the line and fill up their plates.  Some are educated and some are barely intelligible; young, old, white, black and Latino.   Some express gratitude for the food and some don’t speak at all.  Always, I come home feeling renewed and glad in my spirit that I went.  I may be feeding them, but they are also feeding me. 

         So often, I get the paranoid notion that I live in a mean-spirited time among hateful people.  Then something like this happens and I see people’s hearts just open up; their hands graciously do the work, and their earnest prayers rise to heaven.  They reach out to others and in the process, heal themselves.

                          Thanks be to God,

                          Jane