Once, an emperor heard of a rebellion in a remote part of his kingdom. He gathered his soldiers and went to the area to destroy his enemies. The people of the region, frightened by the might of his army, put up a red flag of surrender. Then the emperor gave them all gifts and turned his horse around to go home.
His
soldiers were perplexed and asked, “Your highness, what’s happening, we have
come to destroy these enemies?”
The emperor replied, “We have. By our kindness we
have destroyed their destructive intentions and turned our enemies into
friends”.
“Kindness is a language that the deaf can hear and
the dumb can understand”, explained the philosopher Seneca. The world is today
badly in need of kindness. We hear and read about lots of unpleasant happenings
from newspapers, television and other sources. Many of these occur because of
the lack of love, kindness and concern for others.
In life we can often opt to win or destroy the
hearts of others; make their hearts throb out of joy or break out of grief. It
is entirely up to us to make others as well as ourselves happy.
Let us not avoid any occasion to express or show kindness and love. Always remember that kindness makes us feel good; it softens our hearts and brightens our world as well as the world of others. Last but not least, let us not forget the great saying that kindness makes you the most beautiful person in the world, no matter what you look like.
