Why is Kindness So Easily Lost?
We opened the tri-fold brochure at the beginning of the trailhead at the McDowell Sonoran Preserve. Besides a detailed map with the length, difficulty rating and elevation change of the thirty-one trails in the area, the pamphlet also had a list of basic trail etiquette:
Stay on designated and posted trails.
Pick up all dog waste and deposit in a trash receptacle.
Do not disturb wildlife or alter, deface, place or remove any materials, including rocks, animals, or vegetation, alive or dead.
No alcohol or glass containers.
Downhill traffic should yield to uphill traffic.
All trail users should yield to horses.
Bicyclists should yield to all other users.
When approaching horses, make your presence known with a soft voice, and follow the instructions of the rider.
Sound travels far in the desert environment, so please speak quietly.
Be considerate of other trail users – you are all here for the same reason.
That last point stopped me for a minute. Are we really all out here for the same reason? What is that reason?
Do others come to the wilderness because what they find there cannot be purchased in any bag or box at the store? Do they come for photos or adventure or to imprint in their memories an Arizona sunset? Do they come to lose themselves, only to discover they actually find something they didn’t know was missing?
Or is it simply, they want to get from point A to point B and a little kindness along the way makes the journey more pleasant?When everything else is stripped away, perhaps this is the most basic reason.
Maybe cities should invest in tri-fold brochures and pass them out at all intersections, including notes about yielding and speaking in soft voices and picking up messes.
Because couldn’t we all use reminding in this world of Me First and Loud and Shirking Responsibility that as we head from point A to point B, it is more pleasant for everyone when we are kind?
Why is kindness so easily lost?
Proverbs 3:3 states: Do not let kindness and truth leave you. Bind them around your neck. Write them on the tablet of your heart.
How can we keep kindness from leaving? If it has left, how can we find it again? How can we respond with the love of Christ in a world of overwhelming need, when life seems so much more complicated than traveling from point A to point B?
I have been intrigued by these questions. So much so, that I have invited several friends and writers to explore this thought with me. Throughout the month of February, we will be hearing from those who have wrestled to discover answers.
Writers will share their stories of choosing, discovering or fighting for kindness in the midst of their own challenging circumstances – as a new widow, as a recovering perfectionist, as a cancer patient, as a person living with AIDs and on the one-year anniversary of a mother’s death. I hope you will join us on Monday for the series, “Hold Kindness Close.”
My prayer is that you will find help on your own journey from point A to point B.