“THE RICH WIDOW and THE POOR WIDOW” A True Story About Kindness Being the Only Medicine That Can Heal the Wounds of the World
A True story about the power of loving kindness to touch and uplift the giver, the receiver and the world through conscious compassionate actions PLUS Wisdom from Amma, Buddha, Gandhi, and Einstein!
This is our WEEKDAY edition of THE DAWNING LIGHT NEWS # 1241
Our FREE version of our “Daily Journal of Transformational Writing”
CHILD PEACE STORIES Section # 33
Inspiring READ ALOUD STORIES for children of all ages…
Selected, edited and published by Chinmayan…May your Christmas be bright, loving and full of kindness and miracles of every kind as these magical stories for you and your family and everyone on earth!
Images courtesy of Pixabay
ANNOUNCING A SPECIAL SERIES OF “CHILD PEACE STORIES”TO CELEBRATE THE LOVING HEART OF THE CHRISTMAS SPIRIT
To celebrate this Christmas Holiday season,
we are publishing 24 heart opening and inspiring stories
That I have collected over many years to share with you.
Today’s story is “THE RICH WIDOW and THE POOR WIDOW”
A Wonderful story in our special series…DAYS OF MAGICAL and MIRACULOUS READ ALOUD CHRISTMAS STORIES for children of all ages…
The 14th story in our special series…
One great story everyday from now until Christmas Day!
Images in this story by the kind courtesy of Pixabay
Kindness, Caring and Love Is The Very Essence Of Christmas
Kindness and caring and loving and thinking of others more than of your own self is the very essence of what Christmas is all about.
As the Christmas Spirit grows stronger and brighter with each passing day during this long season, it transforms more and more people through opening their hearts to sharing this Love with every one around them.
It is not a “fairy tale”.
The Christmas Spirit is like the sun rising after a long and freezing winter night to shine away the darkness by melting even the most frozen of hearts so that their own real Love can flow again.
Kindness and caring are the doorways to a greater life based on being a force of Love for others and is the secret to happiness and fulfillment.
At the end of the day, it is those acts of kindness that give us meaning and purpose because being Loving is who and what we really are!
If everyone understood this secret about loving kindness and used it everyday, the power of love, compassion and caring would transform our lives and save the planet.
The Power Of Kindness and Caring
Kindness is contagious! The more we share about it, the stronger it gets and the more it spreads from person to person.
This Christmas season, let’s all create a pandemic of kindness, which this world and all living beings on our beautiful planet home so desperately need!
Kindness is love in action and expression which uplifts every life it touches and has an expanding domino effect.
Even the smallest act of kindness has much more positive results and greater rewards than anything you can do just for your own self centered interest.
When you embrace practicing kindness consciously and on purpose, with an open and loving heart, you will be making a huge difference wherever you go…and will feel waves of sweet satisfying contentment and joy surging through your mind that you can’t get any other way.
If you want to be released from your worries , fears and struggles and move up into a more positive, peaceful and loving state, then find a way to serve others that works for you.
I will illustrate these points with the following true story—“The Rich Widow and The Poor Widow” that I wrote about how I learned the amazing effects this shift in attitude from being selfishly centered to becoming focused on selflessly serving and helping others can have.
The Rich Widow and the Poor Widow
Loving Written By Chinmayan For This Special Series
When I was a young man, I made a living by offering my landscaping skills and expertise to the local community of our little town.
I specialized in taking neglected, overgrown properties and restoring them to beautiful, pristine condition.
I had been thoroughly trained by my Dad since boyhood in every aspect of landscaping, and instilled with the attitude that “any job worth doing is worth doing to the best of your abilities”.
I delighted in doing great work and delivering exceptional results on every project I was asked to do. Because of this I had many clients, most of them women, from all walks of life.
It was from two of my steady clients, both widows, that I learned the secret to having a life of lasting happiness, a peaceful and contented mind and an open and loving heart.
One client was the wealthiest woman in our little town, with a large country mansion on many acres with a large heritage rose garden that needed constant care.
She drove an expensive luxury car, wore top tier designer clothes, had a house full of fine furniture, a huge kitchen she never cooked in and plenty of money to travel anywhere in the world.
Most people in our town looked up to her as someone who had a dream life because she could buy or do anything she wanted.
When she was in town, many envious eyes followed her as she drove by in a car that cost more than any of them could earn from many years of hard work as farmers, ranchers and loggers.
Whatever she did was done with genteel style and grace, as if she was a queen. In public, she seemed perfectly happy, and having a perfect life of ease and elegance.
But, as I worked on her property, I saw what her life was really like.
Whenever she met with me in her huge living room to give instructions or pay me for my work, she was always irritable and tense.
One day I asked, “How are you doing?” As I genuinely wanted to know. She looked at me with a startled expression, and then opened up to me.
“I am miserable. I bang around in this big house all day long by myself, with nothing to do. I’m bored, lonely and unhappy. My kids don’t visit or bring my grandkids to see me anymore..and to tell you the truth, its hard to get out of bed sometimes.”
I had another client who was one of the poorest women in town.
She had a little house with a small front and back yard which I took care of for her for just $5.00 a month…because I knew she had only her monthly Social Security check to live on.
She walked wherever she needed to go because she couldn’t afford a car.
Her clothes came from Goodwill, all the furniture in her house had seen a lifetime of use, and she had to scrimp every month to buy food and pay the bills.
Yet, out of all of my clients, she was the happiest, friendliest, most caring and considerate.
She had a delightful zest for life, and was always on the go, with a large circle of friends and family who adored her. I rarely saw her when I worked on her yard because she was always out and about town.
One day, I asked her how she was doing.
She replied, “Well, after my husband passed away a few years ago, just when I thought my life, too, was over and I was drowning in grief, one of my friend’s insisted she needed my help for a few weeks.
When I told her I didn’t feel like helping anyone at all, she said “That’s when you need to be helping the most. I will be at your door to pick you up tomorrow morning, no if ands or buts!”
“I didn’t know it then, but she was saving my life!”
She put me to work five days a week as a volunteer in the hospital and later on I was invited to join the volunteer team at the Hospice.
To tell you the truth, I have never been happier because I get to do things for people who can’t do them for themselves.”
Years later, when the widows died, very few people came to the rich widow’s funeral while hundreds of people followed the poor widow’s coffin in a long walking procession that wound through our little town to the cemetery to honor and celebrate her life.
Through her example and the example of my spiritual teachers who all dedicated their lives and every breath to serving others in every way they could to ease the suffering in the world, I chose to follow in their footsteps and have done so ever since to the best of my ability.
My friends, I have a question for you today!
Of all the Christmas Stories I have published so far in this special series, which one(s) did you love and find help you the most?
I would love to hear your answer in the comments….
ENLIGHTENING WISDOM QUOTES About The Transforming Power of Kindness, Caring and Compassion—
IF YOU WANT TO FIND YOUR TRUE SELF, BE LOVING and KIND
“The best way to find yourself is to lose your self in the service of others.”
—Gandhi
THE LANGUAGE OF KINDNESS
“Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.”
—Mark Twain
LIGHT A LAMP OF LOVE IN YOUR HEART
“If you light a lamp for someone else, it will also brighten your own path.”
—Buddha
LOVE IS THE FACE OF GOD
“Love is the face of God.
Love is the only medicine that can heal the wounds of the world.
True happiness is when Love that is within us finds
Expression in external activities…
The opportunity to serve others should be considered a rare gift,
A blessing from God.”
—Amma
WE WERE BORN TO LOVE
“We were born to love.
You might say that we are divinely created love machines.
We function most powerfully when we are giving love.
The world has led us to believe that our well being is
dependent on other people loving us,
But the truth is that our well being is dependent on our giving love.
Its not about what comes back; it is about what goes out.”
— Alan Cohen
“LOVING KINDNESS IS THE ONLY MEDICINE THAT CAN HEAL THE WOUNDS OF THE WORLD”
—Amma
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while I loved today's story -- and all those so far in your series, I have to admit it's the tales featuring children the most, and their sweet dreams coming true. As an elderly widow who never had kids, they touch me the most.