"Be Ye Kind!"

As I have mentioned before...Paul has a very part time gig preaching on Sundays at a small church in Scarborough. His sermon today was about kindness...and I love his opening story:

Kindness as a Way of Life

A long time ago, when my little sister Alyson was just three or four, she was

given a line in a sort of play being performed by her Sunday School class. The line,

in its entirety was: “Be ye kind!” which was to be spoken directly and with a

firmness that stopped just short of reprimanding. She did it well, and was terribly

cute as she did so, and so of course my big sister Elizabeth and I did what older

siblings do: we gave her no end of grief for it. It became a kind of catch phrase

among us, uttered anytime that a low-stakes squabble emerged among us. Did

my sister insult me? “Be ye kind!” I would retort, and we’d start laughing instead.

Was I taking up more than my share of the back seat? “Be ye kind!” my sisters

would command, and I’d put my feet back on the floorboards where they

belonged. I remember that sometimes even my parents would employ the line.

“Be ye kind!” they’d say, and we’d pull back from whatever conversation or

behavior we were engaged in that was driving a sibling crazy. Even today, some

sixty years later, Be ye kind! retains its power among us to turn tension into

laughter.

Be ye kind! Yes!

It was an easy breezy Sunday. I had a good mix of getting things done...a little creating...and chilling on the patio. And our son Nate stopped by for a visit...it was an awesome day!

It's the time of year that we see a lot of bees on the hummingbird feeders....and it's interesting to watch the hummingbirds try and chase them away.  This one was settled here for a long time...just chilling on the patio.

Have a great week....and Be Ye Kind!

Or maybe I should say...Bee ye kind!