My Take on Kindness

I wonder how such a simple concept can be so difficult for us to do.

However, I do know we all had this back when we were kids, and we didn't know any better. Back when everything for us was magical and beautiful. But then life happened, we grew up and we learned what pain and betrayal are. We got hurt, we were devastated and became cynics of the once magical and beautiful world we thought it was. We didn't want to get hurt again so we build walls to protect ourselves and within these walls, we learned to harbor contempt and hatred. And what was once the innocent and soft-hearted us became frozen and hard as stone.

They say love and kindness are the keys to melting hard, frozen hearts. As cliche as it may sound (as this is mostly shown in cartoons), I think they're right. However, I don't think it's enough to just wait around for someone to do this for us. As hard as it is to do, I think it's better if we take the first step ourselves.

It doesn't have to be anything big. Like for instance, even if your morning started out wrong and you are in a bad mood, you don't spread your negative vibe at the office. You leave it outside your office door and smile at your office mates the moment you walk in and say good morning. Or when you're irritated by the noise and chaos of your kids at home after a hard day's work, you just choose to ignore this and say well, this is still better than coming home alone to a quiet house with no one to talk to or greet you. Or just choose to walk away instead of arguing with somebody because it's not worth destroying the peace.

Even such simple things are already hard to do for me because it's much easier to react strongly. But I guess in the end, I've slowly learned to ask myself, what good will that do? Does winning this argument even matter? In an office scenario, is it good for the team or will it just divide people and have them take sides instead? I don't used to think like that and people who know me well have seen me fight tooth and nail to prove I'm right about something and I love doing this. But over the years, I've slowly learned to think otherwise.

Perhaps it's with age that I've learned to let some things go, especially when I think they're not worth my time. Some battles are just not worth fighting over (I don't want to end up looking old or die stressing over needless stuff). It's either that or perhaps, just perhaps, I've learned to be a little more mature already.

hazel
03.24.2022