Kindness

What is the legacy you want to leave behind?

For me kindness and all that it encompasses is the most important emotion in the world, it is of course a branch of love, or love is a branch of kindness. Hard to tell really.

Having been at the receiving end of a great deal of unkindness in my life, according to a family friend who knew me from age 9, and said I didn’t deserve a moment of it, being kind is very important to me.

I will always be straight with people, if you ask me if you’ve upset me I will tell you honestly, but I will do it using respectful language and without blame. We are all human and we all make mistakes, choose the wrong words, snap when we’re under pressure.

We may also simply not understand someone else as we have no base of reference for their emotions. Empathy can be missing if they make no sense to you.

I have not made sense to a good few people, because I have always looked capable and strong when I’m completely broken. Apparently I don’t show emotion, but then I come from a time when you just got on with it.

That was my training, my family were very good at keeping going no matter how much they were struggling. My dad worked in the London ambulance service for years despite what I now believe to have been a breakdown, he went to work everyday. He would never have considered himself to be a hero, that’s just what you did.

All this led to me understanding the importance of kindness in life. The Gazan’s could do with a huge amount of simple kindness right now, as could the Ukrainians, and many others in this world who are struggling with things that may not make western news.

This includes people in my own country, victims of government decisions that have tripled their stress, caused immense upset, and resulted in some living in hovels. If you’re aware of the Postmasters Scandal in the UK, it’s beyond disgusting. Innocents imprisoned or fined tens of thousands of pounds due to a computer error. Then it was hidden!

All these examples could be solved with one simple question: is this kind?

The follow up being: is this the right thing to do for all concerned not just myself, or the government.

I like to keep life simple, kindness is such a clear yet easy direction to follow. It’s my direction. I hope that I will leave this world a better place by helping more people to be happy, which makes people kinder as they’re not working from anger.

However, I will leave you with a quote from my Guide Amos, which I may have posted before, but is always worth repeating.

When two people are on opposing sides of an argument, both are completely right. Because both are coming from their own understanding of life or the situation.

Amos

He went on to say that even though one person may actually be completely wrong, they won’t feel that way. This may just be because they can’t face what they have done, or need to hide it. No matter what the cause, conflict won’t solve it, respect for what the other person is feeling alongside discussion will.

Whether we are right, wrong, or lost somewhere in the middle, respect for each other is so important.

Kindness reminds us to keep all the good feelings in play.

Best love

And my prayers are with Ukraine and Gaza, and anyone who is going through a bad time.

Deb xx

P.S. This is my prayer: I pray for everyone in the world, all those I know, for all those I don’t know. For the children and for the animals. Especially for the sick, ill, injured, disabled, anxious, and depressed of this world. For victims of natural disasters, global warming, and violence of all kinds. Please help them all Lord.