The virtues that are nurtured from the beginning turn into habits and transform into a foundation for the rest of our life. The fact that we learn the most during our growing years make our early years of life crucial. Dr. Malti at the University of Toronto believes that there are three components in the practice of kindness - kind emotions, kind cognitions, and kind behaviors. Kind emotions include sympathy, empathy, respect, guild for wrongdoing, and pride for acting ethically. Kind cognitions come from understanding how the act of kindness affects others and ourselves. Kind actions are the acts of prosocial behavior as simple as giving a helping hand, cooperating, or comforting another, or as complex as sharing with others or including the discriminated. Kindness do not grow spontaneously without us being exposed to real-life situations. We learn by watching the actions of others. Kindness is also reciprocal. When we receive kindness, we are more likely to return to others. Kind deeds like saying "how are you feeling?" when we see friends get hurt or donating items which are still in good condition to others in need can help us practice kindness and feel good about ourselves. We do not make ourselves happy by being the receivers of kindness. We escalate our feelings of happiness, improve our well-being, enrich our friendships, and build peace by learning to be givers of kindness. Finding ways to bring up this concept of sharing kindness through giving we experience during our everyday life conversations. One of the many small little things we've created is an opportunity to learn together in making cookies. During the process of making cookies, we let ourselves know that each one of us is making something nice for a friend. From time to time we overhear that a friend may like to keep the cookies for himself or herself :). However, with our sharing of understandings more and more abilities to comprehend grows. It's time to embrace the moments! We are looking for friends outside to give our warm and yummy cookies. Another moment to realize ... the cookies are meant to give to this person after he's being kind to accept our offer ... but no one seems to be willing ... oh no! Another learning moment to understand the real meaning of giving. Slowly but surely we solve this confusion. Elie takes the courage to make this person's day! The next learning experience goes more naturally. Elie's kindness has motivated Luna to be a kind friend to the waste collector by giving our cookies to him as an appreciation of his hardwork. The rest of the story is about us being surprised by his kindness. He offers us if each one of us likes to have a quick glance of sitting behind a real steering wheel! Oh wow! What an experience! We invite ourselves to contribute ideas for the behaviors we want to embrace to keep our social contexts a safe, fair, and caring place. This living document reinforces that every community member is responsible for the well-being of the whole group. The meaning of giving can offer different purposes to each one of us. For some, it can be the season of giving, it can be about sharing. Being thankful for another opportunity to gather together to celebrate Christmas, Children & Friends invites all of you on Friday, December 23 from 05:30 p.m. to 07:00 p.m. Foods from home are most welcome (as long as it doesn’t contain nuts). We will provide finger foods and spaghetti (vegetarian). Appreciate your kind R.S.V.P. by Wednesday, December 21.
Kindest, Children & Friends.
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