Kindness is Welcome Here

Frog, Mouse and a bunch of homeless animals figure in this woodland setting that easily stands in for anybody's everyplace. In a world that increasingly feels devoid of welcome and kindness and the shared building of community, editor and writer Patricia Hegarty's warm comfort tale offers a simple code that lies at the heart of all peacemaking.

As the year ends, if not the decade, I'm comforted as well to find this web site, representing an ongoing project between two friends, one Hindu, Ravi, and the other, Azeem, Muslim. The Dharmadeen Alliance features videoclips and articles about interfaith friendship in Nepal, an exploration of the feminine concepts of Shakti and Shakina in both religions, an interfaith symposium in Singapore, a story of Kashmiri Muslims taking care of Hindu orphans, tech professor and activist Ram Puniyani's TEDx talk about history and the political imposition of divisive hatreds, and more. (Puniyani has received threatening calls for his lectures promoting tolerance and understanding between Hindus and Muslims in India).

Gandhi was fond of quoting Corinthians 1:13, "And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love." And what greater way to manifest love than with kindness?

All over the world, we humans are busy corroding our souls with suspicion of and hatred for one another. What if instead, we practiced (and welcomed) kindness, communication, understanding?