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Paying kindness forward with love
"Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared." - Gautama Siddharta
I believe this quote above applies to generosity as well and we were able to witness just that this past Sunday at Karma Kitchen. Eleven of us candles pooled our internal flame with 109 patrons and created a world of generosity to be rippled out into the world. We all took part in contributing our hearts and effort and we got to see some amazing outcomes as a result.
Here are some of the extraordinary transformations that happened this past Sunday:
There were two ladies who were seated expecting the Taste of Himalayas meals. They were so touched when they realized what KK is about that they moved tables in the middle of their lunch to accommodate a group so they could all sit together and even bussed their own table after they completed their meal!
Some of our veteran KK volunteers (Eva and Hafeez) were standing in line and noticed the chaotic atmosphere and joined in to help bus tables and later on took care of the operations as the volunteers ate their food.
Another KK veteran (Jazz) brought his own display chalkboard as we were lacking our own. He came up with a theme of Rebirth in accordance with the first day of spring and encouraged patrons and volunteers to draw their thoughts.
We had two chocolate chip cookie chefs on Sunday! One was a volunteer and the other was a patron. The patron required her bowl back only to find that her bowl returned filled with the cookies made by the volunteer.
There was a woman who decided to celebrate her birthday at the Taste of Himalayas but was happy to find KK in its place for lunch and continued with her birthday plans. One of her friends, Brian, sang her a Happy Birthday song in the Navajo language. It turned out, he knew a collection of Sioux and Navajo songs and sang two songs for KK. This experience is best described by Pancho's eloquent story titled: "The New Spring of Humanity":
http://www.karmakitchen.org/story.php
I am always astonished what a difference we can make just by being kind. It costs nothing, it takes less energy than to be negative, and we have an unlimited supply of it.
Thank you to all of the volunteers as this day was made only possible by you all. One of our goals here is to promote good will and kindness to others. Your unconditional kindness and giving this past Sunday was the reason for the mentioned transformations of people. The patrons came in with one type of thinking and left with a more positive and open type of perspective that encompasses compassion for others. We were able to witness these transformations in others and perhaps yourselves and there will be other changes out there that you will not get to witness but that you all were responsible for.
--From the heart on Mar 27, 2010
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