“And at these words his heart grew light, and the longing for home left him.”
Reading: Click here to read this week’s story, Leo Tolstoy’s “God Sees the Truth, But Waits.” As you read, allow your mind to connect to other thoughts and events in your life. When you find one especially meaningful, put away our story and consider yours.
Stories Journal: Assuming you connected your reading to a thought or an event in your life, summarize it in your journal. If you find that difficult, consider this story as a response to the horrific shooting in Connecticut. Write about your thoughts related to that.
Kind Action: Is there someone in your life with whom you are holding a grudge or haven’t forgiven? Perhaps someone you are mad at? Do something genuinely kind for that person. If you can’t bring yourself to do something genuine, try to at least think warm thoughts about that person.
Comments Section: Tell us about your experience reading the story, writing in your journal, and/or contemplating or completing the Kind Action suggestion.
Kind Living 
I love this blog already. I really connect it to my experience of trying to make a conscious effort every day to do something kind. Thank you for posting these inspirations. 🙂
While I do not want to comment directly on the shooting in Conneticut, I do want to recommend a novel I just read, called The Postmistress, set during WWII before the US entered the war. It focuses on the lives of three women with their own burdens to bear. In an interview at the end of the novel the author says the central question of the novel is “How do you bear (in both senses of the word) the “news”? It is not only about being able to bear to tell the truth but also about the lies we tell ourselves not to acknowledge that we cannot bear to hear in the news!
I was incredibly moved by this story. I thought that it would work out for Aksionov. I was expecting the “happily ever after”, and at first I was dismayed at the way the story ended. After sitting here pondering on it though, I realised something about myself. That I always feel that if you are a good person, that things will work out for you, and will be okay in the end. Over the last few years of my life I have come to realise that is not true very often. However after spending time reflecting, I realised that perfects it did work out well in the end. Because the experience changed him. He learnt the ultimate lesson – forgiveness. And he died at peace. And he touched someone’s heart, and changed them, in the process.