A good day to redouble our efforts to think and speak kindly

I had a house guest from Sunday to Thursday of this week, so I've been playing a lot of catch-up over this holiday weekend. I'm always glad to offer up my living room to a friend in need, be it for a visit, a stranded night out, or some post-breakup couch surfing. I've happily accommodated scores of friends, but no matter how low maintenance they are, it still puts a damper on the usual processes of daily life. I guess I shouldn't look at it as preventing me from doing other charitable odds and ends, but as a different sort of charity in and of itself.

Anyway, in observance of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, I wanted to share two nuggets that came from Beliefnet's Daily Buddhist Wisdom email this week. I share not because I embody the thoughts behind them, but because I aspire to (and hope you do too):

Not disparaging, not injuring, restraint in line with the Patimokkha, moderation in food, dwelling in seclusion, commitment to the heightened mind: this is the teaching of the awakened.

- Dhammapada, 14, translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu

Someone who is about to admonish another must realize within himself five qualities before doing so [that he may be able to say], thus: "In due season will I speak, not out of season. In truth I will speak, not in falsehood. Gently will I speak, not harshly. To his profit will I speak, not to his loss. With kindly intent will I speak, not in anger."
 

- Vinaya Pitaka, translated by F.S. Woodward

And, here are the latest little things...

- Saturday I packaged and shipped twelve items that had sold over the previous few days on Amazon and half.com for the Sean McGrath Fund.

- Sunday I contacted my alma mater, Plattsburgh State University, about an item I had read in our alumni magazine about potentially reviving coordinated alumni volunteer projects. Since the alumni gatherings in NYC are often for baseball games (zero interest) or more staid dress-up gatherings, I'd love to help get some started that involve a little more dirt under our fingernails! I'm also hoping we can somehow do a fund drive in memory of our friend Neil and possibly get some of his cartoons from the college paper scanned and posted. I think it would be a great memorial!

- This morning, I met up in Carroll Park with the vice president of our group so that we could weigh the items donated in our December and January food drives. The gross on those two combined was 384 pounds, which is admirable but not as big as it will be next year, when we put into place some of the things we learned with this, our pilot year!