There are times when the insensitivities of others crush us to the core. Hurt as children and as adults, sometimes horrifically beyond imagination, we have become intolerant. We often forget that those who hurt us are themselves hurting. Even if we understand this, understanding is not enough to erase the memory of pain. How then do we emerge from our small prisons of pain to come back to kindness once again? Two ways: We wake up or we continue to suffer.
What happened to kindness, to the inherent generosity of spirit? It was once the first offering until we learned to suppress it, moderate it, save it up and carefully give it out to those we felt deserved it. Not to those who were unkind. Never.
If we want a kinder world, we have to be kinder to others first, without motive. Even small acts of kindness can have profound effects. I like to think that when I save a drowning bee from the swimming pool that I have saved the world. It takes fewer units of energy to be kind than to be hateful, jealous, or cruel.
The best thing about kindness is it changes us, from the inside out. We learn to forgive, even if we can’t forget, because we are being kind to ourselves. By simply being kind the whole would changes. It’s true.
