In Week 4 we learned about the Law of Giving. Since this week the MKE (Master Key Experience) community are focusing on Kindness Acts, it seemed appropriate to review what the Law of Giving is.

Law of Giving:

1. Wherever I go I bring a gift. I may bring a compliment, prayer, trinket, flower…but I promise to give something to every person I encounter.

2. I promise to be a grateful receiver of the gifts that surround me, pausing often and noticing nature, kindnesses, smiles and compliments; to which I gladly receive with a ‘thank you’.

3. I promise to give hope for joy, affluence, kindness and love, consciously with every encounter, regardless of the brevity.

4. I promise to give, without expectation of reciprocity, to the channels I enrich because I know I am in the dynamic flow of giving and receiving.

This week we were encouraged to do Acts of Kindness, especially random ones, observe kindness in action, and any kindness we received. These acts of kindness we were encouraged to record daily on the MKE website’s Kindness page.

This week I collected newspapers for the cook’s wood stove. On Thursday I gave her a lot of newspapers and flyers since there was a predicted arctic outflow arriving in the afternoon.

The prediction was -10C with wind chill -20C for Friday. This is unusual since this time of year the ornamental cherry trees, snowdrops, and daffodils are often in bloom. We don’t normally get -10C in the wintertime, never mind extreme wind chill.

The cook found out one of the servers had difficulty finding newspapers for her wood stove so the cook shared the newspapers with her. The cook thanked me for the newspapers. Who knew one small act would help more than the cook’s family. These acts incorporated all four laws of the Law of Giving.

Friday was so cold! Everywhere on the farm was freezing! Even the “hot” water tap only gave ice cold water since not enough warm water was flowing through the old pipes.

My coworkers and I were all wearing warm clothing and we were all still cold. One of my coworkers and I did notice the beautiful patterns the ice created on the greenhouse windows and vents. We both took pictures.

When I finally left for home, I cranked the heater to maximum in my car for the hour drive home. Even with my hoodie, thick winter coat, touque, gloves, warm socks, and the heater and seat warmer on maximum, I was still freezing!

When I got home and hubby realized how cold I was, he cranked up the heat in the room and wrapped me in two warm blankets and cuddled with me so I’d warm up. Hubby even made me laugh multiple times to distract me from how cold I was. Hubby’s kindness was definitely Law #3 and I practiced Law #2.

Early Saturday morning I checked on my landlord’s cyclamens. Four of the thirteen plants had wilted. I found several containers to put them all in and watered them, placing extra water on the bottom of the containers so the cyclamens didn’t dry out again. Three of the four cyclamens recovered quickly, within 2-3 hours. The fourth one remained limp.

Later on in the late afternoon to my joy the fourth cyclamen had recovered. It’s recovery made me so happy! I showed kindness to the cyclamens and they showed kindness to me by recovering.

I gave them water in hopes the limp ones recovered and the healthy ones remained strong. (Law #1 and #3). When all four cyclamens recovered I was filled with so much joy! I was a grateful receiver of the cyclamens’ gift of recovery! (Law #2).

One thing I noticed was how small acts, giving newspapers to the cook, hubby wrapping me in warm blankets and making me laugh, and seeing the cyclamens recover were all acts of kindness. Each act made my world a little bit brighter.