The Gift of Kindness

Treating All Life with Care

It seems so simple, this attitude of kindness, as if it were the easiest skill in life to master. Whatever happens, we can't go wrong with the pith instruction to be kind to everyone. Always.

Why behave otherwise? Why act in any other way than with love and mercy toward all? Why not stay on the side of positivity and light, helping ease life's bumpy roads for others?

On our good days, when we feel sane and balanced, this truth seems so obvious. When we aren't overwhelmed with our own stress and strife, we know this kindness inherently. Like happy children, we are able to climb out of our own small lives and spread care and light out into the darkness all around us. We are naturally moved to share the last bite of dessert, to help carry the groceries, to offer the hug to the one who has collapsed in tears.

On rockier days, though, kindness doesn't always come easily. When stuck in our own melodramas, we sometimes forget to look out through the window of our beings to the greater world. When our own skies are grey, we sometimes forget to be kind. Sometimes we even growl at the world instead.

This surely doesn't serve others, and it doesn't help ourselves. The tendency to withhold, to dismiss, to demean even, doesn't spread happiness. It doesn't help anyone stand taller or shine more brightly. It doesn't heal those secret wounds we all carry. And it doesn't keep the world spinning in a healthy way.

And so, today and every day, let's err on the side of kindness. Let's let warmth be our first response to everyone and everything around us. Let's practice the golden rule, treating others with the same gentle care that we long for ourselves. Let's focus on holding us all up instead of sending us tumbling farther into the abyss.

Even though we sometimes pretend otherwise, life is hard for everyone. No one gets through their days without a little stumbling in the dark. We're all fragile human beings who long for happiness and love. Every single one of us can use a soft place to land when we fall and a generous hand to help us rise again.

Need a little help? Rummage around inside for a memory of a time when you were soothed by an unbidden act of kindness - in the grocery store, on the hiking trail, at the hospital. Let the feeling of deep relief you felt then flow through you again. And then remember that every single day we have the opportunity to extend that same gift to others, in ways both large and small.

And let's not exempt ourselves from this commitment to kindness. Let's practice mercy toward our own foibles and follies. Let's offer ourselves the very same support we would offer a dear friend when they are in need of a warm shoulder of support. Let's give ourselves a break, withholding cynicism or harshness toward ourselves.

For surely, kindness buoys us all. Kindness dusts off our own tarnish and helps us all shine a little more brightly. Through it, we become more loving and more lovely. We all become more whole. And we reclaim our rightful place as shining beacons of light in the cosmos, lighting up the world so that we may all breathe easily once again.