By Pauline Reneaux
The topic of Kindness has been on my heart all month. When I saw a recent commercial for Kind bars, it completely solidified this as my topic for this month’s piece. Paraphrasing a bit, the commercial talks about how there are fewer ingredients in Kind bars; placing emphasis on how wholesome they are since they contain less additives than competing products. From the moment I heard this advertisement, I felt that it would be nice to see more of this all around us. Wouldn’t it be nice if people were authentic and didn’t feel the need to add so many artificial details? What if we were kind because we might help bless someone else’s day with a smile or word of encouragement? Maybe the person who cut us off in traffic was trying to get to a sick family member or dealing with stress at a level that we could never imagine. Maybe offering a smile to a person that passes us by, sending a little bit of hope through the air to them; hope that they may not have seen for a while. Maybe instead of firing back at posts we see online, we try just scrolling on by, letting it go. My grandmother use to say, “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.” Unfortunately, this timeless bit of wisdom seems to have been forgotten. Why not bring it back, dust it off, and try it out?
I’m going to put my money where my mouth is and put my words to work. I have purchased some Kind bars and I am going to write some notes of encouragement to attach to them. When I come across someone who is unkind, I hope that my small gift will stop them in their tracks, so that it might bring about a change in their day, mood or mindset. My attempt to send kindness out into the world may do no good, but I can rest knowing that I have tried. My grandmother used to also say, “Kill them with kindness.” Of course, I realize that there are times when we come across people who think kindness is an infectious disease, but I think we can compare being kind to forgiving others. We do not forgive others hoping to receive something from them, we do this for ourselves. The same thing can be said about kindness. If we are kind to others, maybe they will be kind to someone else. It only takes one person, one shift in an attitude or habit to start a wave of positive change in our homes, neighborhoods, communities and world.
Until next month…
Blessings, Pauline
To learn more about Pauline Reneaux, visit her blog at Pauline-Reneaux.com. She welcomes email at paulinereneauxwrite@gmail.com
