Try
a Little Tenderness
“A
little thought and a little kindness are often worth more than a
great deal of money.”
John
Ruskin
I had a very sweet
experience yesterday. A team of men were cutting down a dead tree in
my yard; hard labor under any circumstances and they were long and
lean from doing it every day. It was 93 degrees; every inch of them
was soaked in sweat. I took a pitcher of ice water out to try and
keep them from simply keeling over. At the end of the day, one of
them rang the doorbell. He had an old backpack, torn in several
places and soiled from much use. Inside it were three baby squirrels.
He said, “Look what we found in your tree.” The babies were doing
their best to climb out, but they were too young to have the
strength. “The lady next door said that you were a nature
lover," he said, "so I thought you might like to have them.” I held one of the
babies, only about the size of my hand, just coming into its fur coat. I explained about the five
dogs inside my house, and said they would bode badly for baby
squirrels. He gently placed the baby back with its brothers, and told
me, “Yeah, I have dogs too, but I'm going to take them home and see
if I can keep them alive.”
Such kindness and
gentleness of spirit is uncommon these days, as is valuing the lives
of critters as common as gray squirrels. There is something so potent
about men who are not afraid, and in fact not even aware, of showing
their tenderness. It has an impact on others that is far beyond
typical masculine power displays. Carl Jung would say that such men
have a well developed feminine and enough confidence in their
masculinity to let it show. That's much needed in this world that
over values guns, guts and glory.
Today, let's put a little
thought and a little kindness into our words and deeds. Tenderness
and gentleness are far stronger than steel and bullets.
In the Spirit,
Jane
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