Try a Little Kindness
Last week, my great-nephew Teddy was visiting from Georgia, and we took him to his very first Major League Baseball game at Wrigley Field. He was an absolute champ, enduring the Chicago heat and humidity without a single complaint. We had incredible seats, just two rows behind the Cubs dugout, and the man sitting next to me and I chatted on and off through the first six innings. Then, in the seventh inning, a foul ball came flying over the net straight toward our seats. The man caught it easily. Without the slightest hesitation, he turned and handed the ball to Teddy. He didn't hold it up for the camera. He didn't look at his wife. He didn't wait for the crowd to encourage him. He simply handed it to a little boy at his first Cubs game. I looked at him and said, "Oh my gosh... are you sure?" He smiled and said, "Absolutely."
I've thought about that moment all week. Not because he gave Teddy a baseball, but because there was no pause between catching it and giving it away. There wasn't time to debate it or wonder what the "right" thing to do was. His first instinct was kindness. It made me wonder: when we don't have time to think, what are we wired to do? Is kindness our default setting, or is it something we have to consciously choose? I hope it's both. I hope we practice it enough that, when the moment arrives, generosity simply shows up.
The beautiful thing about kindness is that, once we begin to notice it, we start seeing it everywhere. It reminds us that beneath all of our differences, we are simply people doing our best and hoping to be met with a little grace. Maybe that is one of yoga's greatest gifts. The practice doesn't end when we roll up our mat. It slowly shapes how we move through the world and how we respond to one another.
To the gentleman from Tallahassee, Florida, thank you. I have no idea if you've ever stepped onto a yoga mat or if the word yoga means anything to you at all. But in that split second, when your first instinct was to bring joy to a little boy instead of yourself, you embodied everything this practice has taught me. Your kindness was effortless, selfless, and contagious.
XO
JK