“We Are Here to Learn to Love Better”
“When we bless others, we free the goodness in them and in ourselves. When we bless life, we restore the world.”
So here it is, the final message to the Kindness Blessings class. In closing, I want to sincerely thank you all for your participation. 
I want to give a little extra appreciation to those of you who regularly posted, thus helping keep our collective momentum going. I know it’s difficult to stay focused so I appreciate those of you who did. I also want to acknowledge those of you who completed most or all of the “assignments,” even if you didn’t always post. Each act completed contributed to the amount of positive action taking place in the world.
Thank you!
As I told you early in the class, years ago I discovered words for my personal belief about how we are all connected. It was based on learning about holograms, specifically how when those projected onto a glass plate are broken, each shard of glass contains the whole. This metaphor has not only stayed with me over these years, but grown stronger in my mind. But reading Rachel describe the “mystical version of the Big Bang theory” took my breath away. There was my belief, captured perfectly and more succinctly than I had ever had it for myself. Wow, what an experience.
As you likely understand now, offering and facilitating kindness classes is one way I practice kindness for myself. They provide me a profound sense of purpose. I feel I am doing something meaningful. At their zenith, these classes are profound win-win situations. I benefit from offering them and others benefit by participating in them. When something happens for one of us like happened for me with this class, it’s like the stars have aligned and all is made perfect. I wonder if that’s not happening all the time, if I’m just not practiced enough to regularly recognize it.
As a parting thought, here’s one more nugget from Rachel, “We are here to grow in wisdom and to learn to love better.”
Blessings to you.
Link to Book: “My Grandfather’s Blessings”
Kind Living 
Thank you Andy for all the ways you give to me through your classes and your blog — just knowing that you exist in the world. Sometimes I am blown away by the wisdom of your years, the kindess in your heart, and the love that you give back to the world. I am so blessed to be able to be within the realm of your influence.
Please express my appreciation also to Fish Astronaut, for today’s drawing. The simplicity says it all. His heart sends its beams out to me and mine sends it back to you and out to my neighbors, and family and friends, and, and, and ….
Andy I want you to know that this class will continue on in the hearts and minds of the 37 staff/faculty and the 223 students and numerous guest artists attending a program that a group of us run in KY called The Governor’s School for the Arts. We start tomorrow with staff training and I cannot imagine a better way to start us off than sharing the chicken story. For in our work, we meet the students where they are and, equally important to the arts curriculum, we create a sense of community and weave what becomes eternal support on the journey to discover who we will become and appreciate who we are in the present moment. Even when others in our lives may not see our abilities in the same light. So – there will be hundreds of blessed chickens running around campus and being set free into the world!
And, ditto Linda, on the art today. My morning meditation begins with this prayer to Gayatri, the spirit of Sowelu, the Sun: You, who are the source of all power, whose rays illuminate the whole world, illuminate also my heart so that it too can do your work.
Now I have a beautiful image to go with the prayer!
Blessings, Linda, Blessings Andy and peace and love follow in times of darkness and light.
Carrie