Mary O’Malley – There are lots of books, articles, videos, and blog posts about how to be kind to others. What we often forget is the person in the most need of your kindness is you. When you can meet yourself in your own heart, true kindness comes automatically. It is not something you have to learn. Yet, most of us do not know how to be kind to ourselves because we were conditioned to put ourselves out of our own hearts when we were very young.
I had an opportunity to bring kindness and spaciousness to myself during a very challenging day a couple of months ago while I was breaking down one of my son’s businesses. My son owned and managed two bars for many years, but while he was undergoing cancer treatments, he was unable to work for over a year and was ultimately forced to close his businesses.
When the day came to clear everything out of one of them, he was not well enough to take the lead, so I offered to do it. I knew I could not take on this monumental task alone, so I asked my community for help. A very young part of me felt she was asking for too much, but I reminded her that I am giving others a gift by asking for their help. I was amazed and incredibly grateful that so many people came to pitch in that day.