❤ Necessary Kindness ❤
(A lovely bit of good news, with heart-tips to community.)

A couple months back, my Sonshine had his trombone stolen from our car. Very sad. We learned a lot. We were angry. We were disappointed, then we moved through that and learned and felt compassion for the person who stole it.

We also learned that telling friends about our sadness connects us, and makes it feel … well… less icky.

We received sweet messages of condolence all over the world from friends expressing interest to chipping in for the next one. Sonshine received the sweetest letter from a classmate reminding us that although things in life can be sad and painful, kindness is everywhere to be found (and money was included towards the new instrument).

And then… another radical act of kindness, another student at a different school heard about the situation and decided he no longer used his trombone (he’d moved on to other instruments) and that he wanted to gift his trombone to him. Turned out it is the same kind as the one stolen.

We got a chance to meet this young man, who only asked one thing and that was that Sonshine never stop learning and making music. He said that he had a really good music teacher who led him to other instruments and that it was the best decision he had ever made.

We were so grateful and so happy. Sonshine had his first band concert ever a couple weeks back. (See that charmer with his new trombone 😉 )

One thing about kindness is that to the receiver of kindness it might not feel necessary, but to the giver who sees an opportunity to change things for the better–the kinder–it becomes absolutely necessary.

Kindness is saving us all in billions of seen and unseen ways, every day!

We are deeply grateful for everyone’s sweet notes, comments, and concerns. We are grateful to a 16-year old young man and his mother for their necessary kindness. And we are grateful the trombone was stolen in the first place. It taught us so much about the healing powers of community, even people we have never met before.

love. love. love.
becky