Kindness is Magic

The Kindness of Strangers

Hello Dear Friend,

How are you this week? Sorry, this is a little late, and next week’s missive will be too. Life, glorious life is getting in the way, this Sunday we are off to Unravel at the Farnham Maltings, it has been a few years since I last went and I am looking forward to it. We will be there on Sunday, so keep a lookout for me if you are there too and we can have a hug and say hello in person. ;0)

Last week as I mentioned we went to London to the British Library’s exhibition on Fantasy writing. It had its ups and downs, but overall I was hugely impressed by the people we encountered.

The Kindness of Strangers

Being in a wheelchair can be a scary place to be when faced with large crowds in unfamiliar places, especially when all the facilities we needed were either upstairs or downstairs, and the signage was not brilliant.
People were very kind, spotting that we were a bit lost, pointing out the lifts, from showing us where we wanted/needed to go, to offering to push. Bless you all, I know none of you read this, but to those of you who are willing to step out of your way to offer support and help to a stranger, I just want to say Thank-You. It really does make a difference. We had the most amazing cab driver on the way back to Waterloo station, one of those cabbies who is a Londoner born and bred and is happy to tell tales of how the city used to be. We worked out that we were all about the same age, so had the same memories of growing up in the 60’s/70’s and 80’s. The same kind of family values - hard work, kindness, and watching out for our neighbours and friends. No one had much, but we didn’t moan, we saved for things and looked after what we had. We all despaired of the housing market in London, and of how rents are so expensive, that no one can afford to stay local anymore, but that is a whole different conversation, and is no longer confined to London, but to any large city.

Living Life With Kindness

A friend of mine, thank you, Emma, shared a video with me, about a woman who was kind every day for a year. It can be found here on the BBC website - it is only 6.26 minutes long and well worth a watch if you have the time.

I love the T-shirt she is wearing which states that ‘Kindness is Magic’ - it truly is.

The video was created in 2022, but as ever with the topic of kindness and love, the message is evergreen and always relevant. Her name was/is Bernadette Russell, and in her own words, she is an author, speaker, kindness campaigner, playwright, and tree planter. More information can be found on her website here.
I have just ordered her book How to Be Hopeful: Your Toolkit to Rediscover Hope and Help Create a Kinder World, it is due next week, so I will let you know my thoughts. She has also written a couple of books aimed at children, aiming to show them ways to be kind to others and how to make a difference in this world, maybe that is needed for some of the adults in our world too…

A couple of organisations are studying and promoting kindness as an integral part of our lives. The Sussex Centre for Research on Kindness, which is based at the University of Sussex, and Kindness UK, an independent, not-for-profit, aiming to make Kindness a larger part of everyone’s lives. If you would like to find out more information, click on the links above, or as usual all the links are at the bottom of this missive.

I think that is enough of my burbling for now, until next time, as ever, may your angels and guides watch over you and protect you until we meet again.

Love and Light,

Guided By Angels will always be free to subscribers. If you enjoy it please click the like button, that way I know someone is reading it, or please share it with someone who might enjoy it.
There is the option now to become a paid subscriber if you would like to support these Sunday Letters in that way, or you could consider buying me a cup of tea.

I definitely run on tea.

Thank you for reading and for subscribing.
Until next time, bye for now.

Links:

UnRavel at Farnham Maltings

The Woman Who Was Kind Every Day For a Year - BBC video (6.26 minutes long)

Bernadette Russell’s Website

Sussex Centre for Research on Kindness

KindnessUK website

Anything in bold and underlined is a link to the relevant article or web page. None are affiliate links, just things I hope to benefit you, or people I admire and have worked with.

Note: If there is a * these are affiliate links and may earn me a few pennies without adding to your cost. Disclosure: If you buy books linked here, I may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookshops.