It\u2019s always tricky to begin one of these.\u00a0 I have to pick a point in time and go.\u00a0 That is in the world we know.\u00a0 Now, in a world that turns upside-downer every day, it\u2019s harder to choose a starting point.<\/p>\n
My usual story ideas seem small in the tidal wave of news.\u00a0 Farming, my town, baseball were important and will be again, soon we hope.\u00a0 There is nothing I can add about the virus creeping around the globe.\u00a0 There are enough experts and self-proclaimed \u201cexperts.\u201d\u00a0 When the best comp for this experience is 1918, we\u2019re all struggling with what to do and how to feel.<\/p>\n
A piece of good news: the sun will continue its tilt to our side of the planet.\u00a0 Spring is here.\u00a0 Soon blessed and welcome green will appear.\u00a0 As I write, though, it is one of those dreary days where winter\u2019s hold on things seems strong.\u00a0 Rainy snow or snowy rain is falling.<\/p>\n
Next to me on the desk is a splash of bright orange.\u00a0 It is one of those rubber bracelets with a message printed on it.\u00a0 I keep it in my drawer that has everything: wallet, keys, baseball cards, opener, cut-out articles. \u00a0Pam would like me to clean it out; I think it\u2019s an apt reflection of my jumbled mind.<\/p>\n
Every so often I take the orange bracelet out.\u00a0 On it are these words, \u201cBe kind.\u00a0 Give more.\u00a0 Stay humble.\u201d\u00a0 Folks from Sleepy Eye might recognize them.\u00a0 They are from Tyler Hadley, one of four young men tragically killed in an icy crash west of town six years ago this month.<\/p>\n
Tyler and his mom Deb came up with that phrase when they were brainstorming a slogan for a benefit to honor Tyler\u2019s sister Kaylie.\u00a0 Kaylie died in 2013 of an epileptic seizure, cutting short a gifted teaching career.\u00a0 \u201cKind, more, and humble\u201d matched Kaylie\u2019s initials KMH, a nice fitting.<\/p>\n
Tragedy upon a tragedy, the words came to be used for several 5K charity runs to honor Kaylie, Tyler and the other men who died: John, Payton, and Caleb.\u00a0 I took part in those and have t-shirts and the bracelet from then.\u00a0 Those of us who lived through that were seared emotionally and forever.\u00a0 To have that many young people with luminous futures ripped from a community was nearly unbearable.<\/p>\n
Mixed with the sadness are memories of people coming together to support and lift each other.\u00a0 Those are good to recall at this time when we may be in for adversity.\u00a0 If we could unite for good here in this little town compelled by tragedy, we can maybe do that on a larger scale.<\/p>\n
Be kind.\u00a0 Give more.\u00a0 Stay humble.\u00a0 Six simple words.\u00a0 I like the simplicity.\u00a0 I often read and try to follow complicated and lengthy writings.\u00a0 I enjoy those, even as I get lost in them sometimes.\u00a0 But every so often, simple is good.<\/p>\n
Be kind.\u00a0 Any time I get off the farm and out among people, I see small kindnesses in stores or in lines or on the sidewalk.\u00a0 There is much goodness, as I notice folks hold a door or offer an encouraging word.\u00a0 Being a small-towner, I attend a lot of wakes, and it is heartening as visitors console and share memories with the grieving family.\u00a0 That always seems to bring out good.<\/p>\n
It can almost lead one to believe that kindness is our natural state.\u00a0 Were it so?\u00a0 I need look no further than myself to see days I am grumpy, short, and judgmental.\u00a0 The constant in these moments is selfishness.\u00a0 Concerned about my needs and desires, it becomes easy to abandon kindness as not essential.\u00a0 I might take that out on Pam or somebody waiting on me at a store in town.<\/p>\n
Then we have the constant flow of words on traditional media and newer social media.\u00a0 I think we\u2019re all astounded how mean people can be in comments when anonymously posting.\u00a0 Unfortunately, that seems to bleed over into actual human contact.\u00a0 How awful is it to watch two people yell threw and at each other on some video clip?\u00a0 There is no consensus on how we got to this very unkind state of discourse on a national level.\u00a0 The tweeting president is to blame.\u00a0 Or the people who hate the president are to blame.<\/p>\n
The only thing we know for sure is that each of us can be kind as many minutes of the day as we possibly can, and that is fully in our control.\u00a0 We can be assured the Lord will be on our side when we are speaking and acting out of love.\u00a0 Whether that drifts out into the larger world and softens it, we won\u2019t know.\u00a0 But we can try.<\/p>\n
Give more.\u00a0 This one is tricky.\u00a0 There are people I know who already do so much.\u00a0 With apologies to my gender, I have to say I have in mind a set of \u201cmature\u201d women who are always doing something for others.\u00a0 They are sort of a glue that holds a small town together.\u00a0 I\u2019m not sure we could ask them to do more.<\/p>\n
But the rest of us?\u00a0 Yeah, probably.\u00a0 A couple minutes more a day for my wife, an evening to help a neighbor with a project, volunteering when I don\u2019t feel like it and want to make some excuse. \u00a0I could give more.<\/p>\n
Stay humble.\u00a0 Finally, in the words Tyler chose, is this admonition.\u00a0 It almost seems unfair.\u00a0 We\u2019re being kind, we\u2019re giving more, and we\u2019re supposed to be humble about it, too?<\/p>\n
I\u2019m struck how often in the Bible we are warned of pride.\u00a0 Some of these cautions are almost 3,000 years old.\u00a0 So we see this has been a constant for humanity.\u00a0 In Proverbs, \u201cWhen pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.\u201d<\/p>\n
A while back, I wrote about the temptation to feel we are better than another person or group.\u00a0 To stay humble, we need only remember that each one of these fellow travelers on Earth is also a child of God, a sacred creation by the Creator.\u00a0 From the poorest refugee living in the most dire conditions in a third world slum, to the ultra-rich CEO of a giant corporation, each is from the same God.<\/p>\n
We needn\u2019t feel less though.\u00a0 We are each of us gifted the same birthright.\u00a0 With proper humility comes proper pride, and peace in the balance.<\/p>\n
I will continue to get my orange bracelet out from time to time.\u00a0 Be kind.\u00a0 Give more.\u00a0 Stay humble.\u00a0 Six simple words.\u00a0 Thanks Tyler.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It\u2019s always tricky to begin one of these.\u00a0 I have to pick a point in time and go.\u00a0 That is in the world we know.\u00a0 Now, in a world that turns upside-downer every day, it\u2019s harder to choose a starting point. My usual story ideas seem small in the tidal wave of news.\u00a0 Farming, my …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[162],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-118409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-weeds-by-randy-krzmarzick"],"aioseo_notices":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-22 11:46:37","action":"change-status","newStatus":"trash","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118409"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118409\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":118410,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118409\/revisions\/118410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}