Taking the time to consider another, to please them in some small way can change the way they think of the world.

So much of the world is hurried and inconsiderate. Small sweet gestures of kindness can be like lit candles in the dark to tired and wounded people. Everyone needs kindness.

So appropriate for Lucia day, which custom says is when light is called back from the South to the North. (one more holiday in this season of holidays.)

What candle of kindness will you carry today to give to another person? How will you please them, let them know that they matter? Will you dare to take a moment to be kind to a stranger? To a loved one? To please them by giving them something they’ve wanted… or perhaps not even known that they’ve needed?

Where do we find the balance, to think enough of self to care for another, to give them Peace? How do we move to the place where we understand that pleasing others enriches rather than depletes us. I’m not thinking about the self-effacing kindness that the world urges, particularly on women and children, where everyone matters more than you do, but rather a self-conscious kindness… a caring for the other based on your awareness of the fullness of your heart and life. Sometimes we need to take a calculated risk even when we understand that there will be cost to us.

Kindness is the work of Peace. Pleasing others is not the if I please you, you will like me thing we were taught or maybe just learned as children, it is the I will please you because it makes the world sweeter, easier in some small way. In that way we move closer to Peace, and we move together.