Kindness is something that always makes me cry, the moment I see a kind act bestowed upon someone I bawl like a baby because it feels so darn good.
It is my heart’s song, kindness. In a world where the act of kindness is becoming less and less visible, my heart hurts a little. I need kindness like a squirrel needs nuts, you know? I have to harvest and stock it way for the lean times to come, but it matters not how many memories I hoard it will not make this moment any better, make this opportunity to be kind any less important. My point is this, every moment we breathe in is a chance to exhale kindness.
I used to be that person that judged others for not holding a door open, for not waving when you let them in ahead of you in traffic. I even judged the lotto lady when she didn’t say good luck. These petty little things that had no bearings on their lives, nor in fact mine should not be carried past that fleeting moment in time.
I can quickly recognise what is just meaningless self-inflicted superiority. You see, to me superiority is like a sickness, if one feels superior to another, if they feel the need to let others know how wrong they are, how badly they are living, how others must comply to their “superior knowledge” …then they are truly not well in the head. My role is to will myself to not see the judgements and superiority as something against me personally. My roll is to protect my kind heart so it may keep on receiving and imparting kindness.
Since my cancer battle, I find ways to stress less, but most importantly I realise what makes me feel most healthy is when I carve out time and space to frame kindness. One of those frames is creating this new endeavour I like to call “Girl Talk Walks”. I love listening to other women’s’ stories and comparing our journeys and our life lessons that fundamentally changed us from girls to women. I love walking through our gorgeous city, the sceneries that has the ability to drain the stresses we carry from our judgemental-prejudiced-post pandemic-war torn world. With one sweeping gaze of ever-giving nature in our sity parks, the angst seeps away from our souls. Sharing that with a sister is the utmost in being kind, to self and thus others.
We are here for one thing and one thing only. We are here to find joy for that brief moment we call life, and once that joy is within us we unconsciously drop it like a trail of breadcrumbs so that every person on our trail can nibble on these morsels and in turn find joy themselves.
We will never be happy all day long, but we will have moments of joy that will sustain us all day long. It is the same with kindness, we may not have given or received kindness a lot in our lives, but once we know it, once we call it by its name, we are irrevocably changed.
Kindness to myself allows me to be kind to everyone and everything around me. Even my plants know my kind heart, along with my friends and neighbours too. But it is my daughter that teaches me the most about kindness, from her I have learned to one-up every kind act, to listen with my heart, not just as a storyteller but as if this is my last moment and I must savour every morsel of another’s truth. To think for a moment about where that person is coming from, what world-weary battle are they carrying, before I open my mouth with my opinions.
While we have life in us, while we inhabit this world, let kindness be the one true thing we live by. And if the moment is too traumatic to be kind, do the kind thing for yourself and walk away.
Turn up the music, no one can feel hopeless while listening to music, even the sad songs are pure healing.
Remember a happy moment, or a baby’s joy when they see a parent, or that sense of unity at a football game.
Smile for no reason, even when you have nothing to give.
Flash the emergency lights in thanks.
Let people through just because.
Love and Kindness have no boundaries, untethered they can cause irrevocable goodness.