David Friedman - We Can Be Kind: Healing Our World One Kindness at a Time

WE
CAN
BE
KIND

Healing Our World
One Kindness at a Time

by David Friedman

Copyright 2017 David Friedman

Published by Mango Publishing Group, a division of Mango Media Inc.

Cover Design: Elina Diaz

Layout & Design: Morgane Leoni

Mango is an active supporter of authors rights to free speech and artistic expression in their books. The purpose of copyright is to encourage authors to produce exceptional works that enrich our culture and our open society.

Uploading or distributing photos, scans or any content from this book without prior permission is theft of the authors intellectual property. Please honor the authors work as you would your own. Thank you in advance for respecting our authors rights.

For permission requests, please contact the publisher at:

Mango Publishing Group
2850 Douglas Road, 3rd Floor
Coral Gables, FL 33134 USA

For special orders, quantity sales, course adoptions and corporate sales, please email the publisher at or +1.800.509.4887.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017955298

Eric Rosswood

We Can Be Kind: Healing Our World One Kindness at a Time

ISBN: (paperback) 978-1-63353-675-3, (ebook) 978-1-63353-676-0

BISAC - SEL021000, SELF-HELP / Motivational & Inspirational
- OCC019000 BODY, MIND & SPIRIT / Inspiration & Personal Growth

Printed in the United States of America

Based on the song
We Can Be Kind by David Friedman

Kind: adjective,

1. of a good or benevolent nature or disposition, as a person
2. having, showing, or proceeding from benevolence
3. indulgent, considerate, or helpful; humane (often followed by to )
4. mild, gentle

PREFACE

The chapter headings in this book are taken directly from my song We Can Be Kind, first recorded by Nancy LaMott. Before you read this book, please take a moment to download Nancys recording of the song by going to https://bit.ly/wecanbekind . Its free , as Kindness always is and should be.

Since the purpose of this book is to spread the word about Kindness to the entire world, please feel free to share this URL and your downloaded recording on Facebook, Twitter, with your friends, with your mailing lists, and anywhere you can. And while youre at it, if you enjoy the book, share that too.

Together we can Heal Our World, One Kindness at a Time.

David Friedman

Contents

Foreword
by Lucie Arnaz

CHAPTER 1
So Many Things We Cant Control

CHAPTER 2
So Many Hurts That Happen Every Day

CHAPTER 3
So Many Heartaches That Pierce the Soul

CHAPTER 4
So Much Pain That Wont Ever Go Away

CHAPTER 5
How Do We Make It Better?

CHAPTER 6
How Do We Make It Through?

CHAPTER 7
What Can We Do When Theres Nothing We Can Do?

CHAPTER 8
We Can Be Kind

CHAPTER 9
We Can Take Care of Each Other

CHAPTER 10
We Can Remember That Deep Down Inside
We All Need The Same Thing

CHAPTER 11
And Maybe Well Find, If We Are There For Each Other,
That Together Well Weather Whatever Tomorrow May Bring

CHAPTER 12
Nobody Really Wants to Fight,
Nobody Really Wants to Go to War

CHAPTER 13
Everyone Wants to Make Things Right,
So What Are We Always Fighting For?

CHAPTER 14
Does Nobody Want to See It?
Does Nobody Understand?

CHAPTER 15
The Power to Heal Is Right Here in Our Hand

CHAPTER 16
And Its Not Enough to Talk
About It, Not Enough to Sing a Song

CHAPTER 17
We Must Walk the Walk About It

CHAPTER 18
You and I, Do or Die, Weve Got To Try to Get Along

CHAPTER 19
And Maybe Well Find True Peace of Mind

CHAPTER 20
If We Always Remember,
We Can Be Kind

by Lucie Arnaz

I woke up early this morning determined to write the foreword to this book, but still unsure where to start. As I was pouring a cup of coffee, I heard a thud on our kitchen plate glass window. It happens a lot this time of day in the desert; the reflection must tell the birds that the landscape continues in this direction. Then they get a big surprise. I went ahead and made breakfast before sitting down to write and, while at the table finishing my omelet, looked to the window on my left and saw a large patch of smashed feathers. Out the window, on the patio, still on the ground from almost forty-five minutes ago, was a little grey-brown sparrowsitting upright, perfectly still. I told my husband, Larry, what had happened earlier and that it must have been sitting there this whole time trying to recover from the shock.

You dont know me, but I think I must have been an animal or bird in my last lifebecause I cant see things like that without wanting to help. We decided to give it some water. I filled a tiny dish and crept out slowly onto the patio, fully expecting the sparrow to scare and take off. It didnt. So, I snuck over, got down on the pavement, and put the little bowl in front of her. (It looked like a female.) She allowed me to do this, to just be there and gently stroke her head and back feathers, many of which had been left on the window. As I lay there with her, I kept thinking, What else should I or can I do? Nothing. All I can do is help her get through this and protect her from the large hawks that swoop in from time to time to prey on the injured. I sat up with my knees to my chest and decided to wait until she could fly away, and I started to softly sing: So many things we cant control. So many hurts that happen every day. So many heartaches that pierce the soul Just then, the bird jumped up onto my knee! She just sat there really looking at me, cocking her head from side to side. It was absolutely magical. I felt it was a kind of Thank you, and so I said, Anytime! She blinked a few more times, fluttered her feathers, and took off over the hedge. A Course in Miracles teaches us that we dont know what anything is for, and that is often true. But I sure know what this was for this morning!

I met David Friedman at the tenth anniversary Help Is on the Way benefit concert in San Francisco in August 2004. He was the Special Guest and played his title song to accompany us at the final. Near midnight, after all the schmoozing and picture taking was done, Kieth Dodge (my best friend and right arm) and I decided we were starving and didnt want to go to Martunis for drinks with everyone else, but should just get some food. Pointing at David and his partner, neither of whom we had formally met, Kieth said, Lets ask them! Four hours later, we left Lories Diner satiated from laughter and exploding with inspiration. The four of us had talked about pretty much everything: the business we call show, lousy dates, bunions, and spirituality. It turned out that Davids partner, Shawn Moninger, was a lighting designer at Dont Tell Mama for two years and now was a Unity minister! I had always been an enormous fan of David Friedmans music, and to get to sit with him and listen to him recite some of his own lyrics that nightand to have him help me understand where they came fromwas unforgettable.

We stayed in contact and visited them in New York City, and they drove out to our home in Westchester. We were honored to now call them friends.

In March of 2006, I was doing a concert at The Ridgefield Playhouse in Connecticut and asked Shawn if he would like to light the show for me and, thankfully, he accepted. (Shawn is responsible for so many kinds of light in my life!) I told David that I was thinking of singing Help Is on the Way at this show, since my pal Kieth had passed tragically and unexpectedly a few months before. We were all still reeling from the loss, and I couldnt think of a better song to move us through that pain. Then I got really ballsy and asked David whether he would play the piano for me if I sang it. He immediately agreed. But since I had never performed the song in public, David suggested I might perhaps like to sing it for the congregation at Shawns Sunday service at Unity in Norwalk, Connecticut. Again, David said he would play for me; this would be a kind of practice run for Kieths memorial concert. But I was skeptical: Sing in a church?! David replied, Well, its more like a lounge in Vegas with a great takeaway message. It scared me. I have long considered myself a recovering Catholic with no friendly relationship to religion, but I said I would take a chance. As I sat there that Sunday morning in the lovely Unity lounge above the Ford dealership in Norwalk, Connecticut, waiting to do my song, I listened to what Shawn had to say about Spirit and Life and Truth and who knows what else, and I found myself suddenly and uncontrollably dissolved in tears. Whatever it was, it was something I really needed to hear. Just then I heard David say the words: Were on! Oh, great.