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Week Six ~ Kindness Without Expectation
The sixth prompt for the Kindness Challenge 2017 is Kindness Without Expection.
Diana, Princess of Wales, was one of my kindness role models. Her life was lived by ‘daring greatly’. The royal family was forever changed by the way she chose to live her life within the role of princess. A favorite role model of Diana’s was Mother Teresa. It was that inspiration that puts the most meaning into the above quote. Both of them seemed to have mastered the art of making kindness a way of life. If you read anything about their lives you realize that not always was their kindness returned or appreciated. They seemed to have developed an ability to shake off these negatives and not let it influence their commitment to act with compassion and let go of expectation. Not an easy thing to do. Lessons learned ~ move on.
In my own life, I think sometimes kindness was a mixture of doing kind things in hopes of reaping some of the rewards that comes with the acts along with a desire to be there for others at a time of need. “One hand washes the other.” ….. “You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours.” …….. “What goes round comes round.” ….. “One good turn deserves another.” This, in turn, had me focusing a bit more on what I might be getting out of the encounter instead of ‘random acts of kindness’ and letting go.
Then I realized I didn’t like what was going on inside me when this happened. It was taking away the joy and goodwill that I felt when I did something for someone. I’ve found that through making a decision to act out of kindness and then letting go of whether it was reciprocated or not I’ve gained a sense of freedom. The freedom to dare greatly and live greatly without being hindered by the tendency to judge others.
“If you judge people, you have no time to love them.”
~ Mother Teresa ~
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“The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good.” ~Samuel Johnson
~ 20 ways to give without expectations ~ The Tiny Buddha
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Images by Pixabay
Me In The Middle 
Thanks for sharing your experiences and insights.
I would like to let you know that I could not navigate from your avatar (- the one which appears when you put a ‘like’ to of my posts ) to your website. Your avatar leads to a non-existing website (exampleworkpresscom.wordpress.com) . If this is not your intention, you might want to correct it (WP Admin > Users > my profile) .
Best wishes for your journey,
Karin
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Thanks, Karin! I didn’t know. Most of the time I put a link to my website along with my comment. That URL is from the very beginning when I was just learning the ropes. I’ll contact the WP Team. 🙂
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You just need to go to your settings and designate this site as your default. I can send you a link to a tutorial I made if you want.
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That would be great, Niki! Thank you!
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I hadn’t gotten around to publishing it but just put on the finishing touches to send you the link 😉
https://therichnessofasimplelife.wordpress.com/2017/07/18/link-your-username/
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Thank you! I’m all set! 🙂
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I love your reflections about this Mary Lou. I celebrate that freedom you discovered when you let go of expectation. That’s so wonderful, and I really do feel the expansiveness of it! And I think you’re right – Princess Diana and Mother Teresa are excellent examples of carrying this energy on a world-wide stage.
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Thank you, Deborah! It’s been great traveling through the Kindness Challenge 2017 with you. 🙂
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Really enjoyed this read. I, too, tend to be kind with expectation…I need to be kind regardless…I am going to keep working on this. Thank you for the reminder. 🙂
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Thanks! It’s a lifelong challenge and well worth it! 🙂
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I had a similar chat to myself about my expectations, love the quotes and examples you have found.
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I’ll visit you blog to take a look, Rosie! Thank you for stopping by Me in the Middle. 🙂
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Hi Mary Lou! What a wonderful reminder of the power of being kind and doing positive actions for others without expectation. I think most of us, and our culture for sure, promotes the idea of reciprocity. But once we begin to do things without expectation of return, the act itself seems to become the reward. I’ll admit that it feels fabulous to help people just because I can. The more of us that can do that, the better IMHO. Thanks for the reminder. ~Kathy
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I think we’d have to be a saint (or a doormat 😉 ) to be able to give purely, all the time, with no expectations, Kathy! That I’m not, for sure! That’s why ‘Pay It Forward’ was so popular. You didn’t know who was going to receive your act of kindness and there was no expectation of them having to return the kindness. Thanks for visiting Me in the Middle! 🙂
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