In the midst of your daily struggles…will you consider this?
Will you consider paying a kindness forward today?
Why?
It all started this morning…a gorgeous spring morning with the sun twinkling through the bedroom shades. A feeling of joy and gratitude just naturally began to flow into me. I felt this kind of tingling sensation of “I really do love life…I’m so blessed!”
From there I walk into my daughter’s room to wake her up for school. I sit on the edge of her bed and gently stoke her hair, as her eyes slowly peek open. She smiles, looks up and says, “Hi, daddy!”
It’s a feeling like no other. If you’ve experienced it you know what I’m talking about. If you haven’t, I truly wish I could let you climb inside my senses and experience it…I would love to be able to gift that to you.
However, life unfortunately isn’t like that.
It’s filled with mysteries that test your physical, mental, and spiritual capacities for what sometimes feels like absolutely no objective reason why.
And then there are the joys…like the light in my daughter’s eyes. The beautiful blue color and a sweet voice that almost sounds like birds singing, except when she’s yelling at her older brother, of course.
Well, as I leave her room, my wife asks me, “Did you hear about Chloe’s dad?”
“No. What?”
“He committed suicide yesterday.”
Instantly it’s like an electrical impulse shot through me. I went from joy, gratitude, and love…to “WHAT?!”
It’s hard to fathom the mental and spiritual forces that would take a person to such a place. But the story…it’s actually much deeper and far more heart-wrenching.
See, five years ago Chloe was this amazing little girl with a twinkle in her eye that would melt the most cynical soul and turn it to putty.
She was special…very special. Everyone loved Chloe. When she walked in her smile would light up a room. The kids loved her. The other parents thought she was just the ideal child. And then the crushing news was announced…Chloe was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer.
Worse yet…her disease…this very rare cancer…it was terminal.
Yet, in spite of it she just smiled, loved, and filled everyone who ever met her with a sense of gratitude…something really special.
She and her family were the picture of courage during her fight. The community rallied around this sweet little child. And everyone’s heart was breaking as one…with this family…these lovely people.
WHY?!
It’s one of those great mysteries of life. Why do bad things happen to such nice people?
It’s hard to reconcile. It’s hard to grasp.
Anyway…the fight…they fought it with grace and dignity. But tragically, a little less than 8 months later, Chloe closed her earthly eyes for the last time. The twinkle was gone.
And as a daddy, who gets the extraordinary privilege of getting to see his daughter’s light shine, my heart ached for that poor family. They were mere acquaintances. In fact, I barely knew them.
Yet, every time I looked at my daughter, saw the joy…and life in her eyes…I felt like Chloe’s parents were a part of me. My soul ached at the thought of their loss.
Now, fast forward four years. You’ll see a monument to her outside her elementary school and she’s a quiet sad memory for us. Yet the pain and anguish obviously had raged on for all that time. No peace. No joy. Dark painful memories and the never-ending question…WHY?!
Until finally, it was all he could take.
Now, round two of unimaginable pain and anguish for that poor mother and Chloe’s older brother.
But rather than ask why…I’d like to ask a small favor of you. Close you eyes and send loving thoughts to this poor battered family. Then…TODAY…pay a kindness forward in honor of them.
Today choose to make the world a little bit better place for your being here.
It doesn’t have to be anything huge…a simple smile, with a genuine “How are you today?”
Simply pay a kindness forward and offer that up as you prayer for this grieving family.
In loving memory of Chloe and her dad.
(Out of respect the names and family relationships have been changed for privacy reasons.)
