In India, there is a story about a kind, quiet man who would pray in the Ganges River every morning. One day, after praying, he saw a poisonous spider struggling in the water and cupped his hands to carry it ashore. As he placed the spider on the ground, it stung him. Unknowingly, his prayers for the world diluted the poison.

The next day the same thing happened. On the third day, the kind man was knee-deep in the river, and sure enough, there was the spider, legs frantic in the water. As the man went to lift the creature yet again, the spider said, “Why do you keep lifting me? Can’t you see I will sting you every time because that is what I do?” And the kind man cupped his hands around the spider, replying, “Because that is what I do.”

“There are many reasons to be kind,” author and poet Mark Nepo writes, “but perhaps none is as compelling as the spiritual fact that it is what we do.” It is our essence. Spiders sting. Dogs bark. Bees harvest honey. And we humans lift each other, no matter what it takes. Just look around on any given day and you’ll see small acts of kindness everywhere.

“Even if we don’t want to, we can’t help but feel our connection to the rest of mankind,” Leo Tolstoy reflected, “we are connected by industry, by trade, by art, by knowledge, and most importantly, by our common mortality.”

And, even more importantly, the Yogis would add, by our immortality. That shared universal essence. That divine spark from the Absolute that resides in the innermost part of us. Our true self. Our higher self.

If strangers suffer, we try to lend a helping hand. If things break, we try to fix them. If loved ones cry, we try to console them – because that is what we do.

Even if, like the quiet man lifting the spider, you are stung. Even if you don’t receive a ‘thank you’. Even if your effort is not reciprocated.

It doesn’t matter, because that is what you do. That is what we do.