The reward for kindness is not being seen as kind,
but the electricity of giving that keeps us alive.
    ~Mark Nepo

When I read this, it hit me like a lightning bolt. It’s how I feel. Exactly.

But Nepo takes it further. He points out that “the closer we get to the core of all being, the more synonymous the effort and its reward.”

Think about that for a minute. The reward is in the doing, not what we hope to get back.

I feel that.

So many of us, me included, believe at some level that life should be “fair.” We expect justice. Or to have our kindness returned.

We reach out in love and hope to get the same back.

But that’s not how it works.

Life’s reward is all in the experience of it, the joys and the pain both.

That’s life.

It’s a reminder we could all use from time to time.

I do love Mark Nepo and his The Book of Awakening is the first thing I reach for most mornings.