278 Kindness

It was a sunny day, at the beginning of summer in Okinawa. Riaz came in from school and called out, “Mom guess what I saw Mona do, when she was walking home from school today!”

“Riaz!” warned Shahla right behind him. “Don’t be a tattle tale! You know Mom hates backbiting!”

“NO! NO! This is something good!” shouted Riaz back excitedly. “I saw her walk by a homeless man; she looked at him really sadly…. Then she went across the street to a vending machine and bought some milk or something, I don’t know…but it looked healthy. She looked like she was going back towards school…walking about a block and then, she crossed the street again, and went past the same homeless guy. This time she stopped just a little away from him, and put down the drink and pretended to look in her bag. Then she walked off like she had forgotten all about the drink…leaving it unopened almost in front of the guy. He could have a heathy drink without him knowing that she did it on purpose!!!!”

Asma was standing next to Mother listening to this story, and finally he said…,”and you just watched this whole drama take place, Riaz?”

“Yeah, at first I couldn’t figure out what the heck she was doing. I was going to tease her…but then I figured it out. Wow! That’s MY SISTER that did such a kind deed!”

Just then Mona walked in, and everyone turned to stare at her. She looked at them and said. “What? What’s the matter?”

“Riaz was telling us about your kindness to the homeless man.” answered Mother smiling.

“You saw me Riaz? Do you often spy on me?” Mona said a little crossly.

Riaz laughed, “You never know, Mona, you better be careful what you do! Eyes are everywhere!”

“I am very proud of all my kind children.” Mother continued, “An old man once asked a little boy what he wanted to be when he grew up…and the little boy answered… ‘Kind.’”

Mother smiled at her children. “That is what I desire for all of you.”

“Yeah, I guess even if you grow up to be a doctor or scientist…if you are not kind…you would just be scary!” agreed Shahla.

“Yeah! I don’t like scary doctors!” said little Anisa, not quite understanding the conversation.

“Do any of you have any other stories of people showing kindness?” asked Mother.

“Asma was kind to me when he let me buy the doll I wanted instead of his birthday present.” said Shahla. “Remember he said it could be my present to him, that I would love the doll.”

Everyone turned to look at Asma and he blushed and looked at the floor.

Mona said, “Oh, remember little Ayden, Shahla’s friend? He is only 5 years old but he split his birthday money three ways to get gifts for him and his two brothers, instead of spending it all on himself!”

“Yeah! What a sweet little kid! I want to have a son just like him when I grow up!” nodded Shahla.

Asma said, “I remember a story…. I don’t know if it is true or not. It’s about a farmer who found an eagle with its foot caught in a trap. The farmer’s first thought was to kill the eagle, but as he looked at it, he saw how beautiful it was, and thought, ‘that eagle hasn’t done anything to me, why should I hurt it?’ So he cut the trap away from the eagle’s foot, and it flew away.”

“Ahh that was kind!” Anisa said, and everyone agreed with her.

Asma continued, “A weeks later the farmer was resting next to a stone wall, and the eagle was flying high above him. Suddenly the eagle flew down and snatched the man’s hat from off his head, and dropped it down the road aways. The farmer jumped up and chased after his hat, thinking ‘I saved that eagle and he teases me!’ Just as the farmer reaches his hat, the whole stone wall crumbles down. If the farmer hadn’t got up to get his hat he would have been killed! The eagle had seen the rocks getting ready to fall and went to save him!!”

“Ahh, kind eagle!” said little Anisa, and everyone laughed.

“That is a good story Asma!” Shahla said. “It reminds me of the a little of the man that was kind to the spider.”

“Ha! With a totally different ending!” laughed Riaz.

“Tell me the story, tell me the story!” said Anisa jumping up and down.

“It is a story about a thief, and generally not good guy….” began Mona.

“I can tell the story, Mona!” said Shahla. “This thief almost stepped on a spider, but then he thought, ‘Oh, poor spider, I should be careful not hurt her,’ and he carefully stepped over the spider. One day he died, but because he had not been a good man, he found himself in hell.”

“Oh, Shally! That’s a bad word!” said little Anisa.

“Well it’s part of the story so it can’t be helped!” Shahla answered and then continued. “The Buddah looked down from Heaven and saw the thief and because of the kind deed he had done for the spider, the Buddah lowered a spider thread all the way down to Hell.” Here Shahla stopped and gave Anisa a look that said, “Don’t interupt!”

“The thief saw the thread and grabbed it and started happily climbing out of the firey pit!! He was half way up, when he felt the thread wobbling.” As she told the story Shahla pretended to hold on to the thread and swing back and forth. “The thief looked down and saw a lot of other people climbing up after him. He yelled down at them, ‘No! No! This is my thread, not yours!!’ He started kicking the heads of the people below him.” Shahla, with her hands on the pretend thread, kicked and kicked. “Then, because of all the jerking, the thread broke and the thief and everyone else tumbled back down to Hell!” And Shahla fell to the floor to demonstrate. “The Buddha looked down at them sadly shaking His head and walked away.”

“Ohhh, how sad!” said Anisa, “What does the story mean, Mom?” she asked.

“Well I guess it means, the thief was rewarded for his kindness, but his selfishness caused him to suffer.”

“Kindness-Good, Selfish-Bad! Got it!” said Riaz laughing. And everyone joined in.

“So Kindness is the opposite of Selfishness?” asked Mona.

“Yeah, maybe it is.” agreed Mother, “Kindness is how we show love. Selfishness is the opposite. To love, you have to care for the other person and forget yourself.”

“Oh, remember the story of the girl with the magic parasol?” said Mona. “(That is a sun umbrella, Anisa!) She thought she was ugly, but one day an old woman gave her a magic parasol, and she suddenly found herself beautiful. She was so happy and confident! Then she saw a poor crippled boy who was being teased. She went and put the parasol over him and he became tall and handsome. The two of them danced and played and had fun at the festival. When it was time to go home…the girl couldn’t decide if she should take the parasol with her or give it to the boy. Finally she decided he needed it more than she did. She kindly gave him the parasol and walked sadly home.”

Shahla jumped in and finshed the story with, “And when she walked by the pond she looked at her reflection and found that she was more beautiful than before. A kindly heart is the most beautiful!”

“Yeah! Good story!” shouted Anisa.

Mother looked at them and said, “So we all need to practice showing love through kindness. We can do this by: 1)Smiling at everyone. 2)Being respectful to everyone, even those who are younger than us. 3) Not leaving people out. Try to include everyone, so no one feels bad. 4) Offering to help, even people you don’t know. 5)Thinking about others over yourself.” Mother smiled and finished, “In other words, let’s all try and be more like ‘Abdu’l-Baha. He is our Example. He was always kind to everyone, no matter how they treated him.”

“Yeah, animals and bugs too!” Anisa put in. “’Abdu’l-Baha and Baha’u’llah were always kind to animals and bugs too!

“Yes there are lots of stories about Their kindness to all God’s creatures. Also stories about Jesus, Buddah, Moses and Mohammaed showing kindness. But those
stories will have to wait for another time,” Mother said. “It is time for you all to go and do your homework! But there is a quote from Baha’u’llah that I would like you all to memorize.” Mother said. “Let’s all try and be ready to share it with Daddy at dinner time.”

 

“Look not upon the creatures of God except with the eye of kindness and mercy.”

 

Mother wrote it down for the older children, and then took Anisa into the kitchen to help her memorize it. The rest of the children could be heard laughing and making bets on who could be the first to memorize the quote as they went into their rooms to do their homework.

 

“As rain falls equally on the just and the unjust, do not burden your heart with judgements, but rain your kindness equally on all.” —Buddha