The Kindness Review

Kindness (noun): the quality of being friendly, generous, and considerate; a kind act.

words Revathie Dhanabalan

There was an old proverb that I used to hear from my grandma -

“Write injuries in sand, kindness in marble.”

Might be tweaking it slightly here but in essence, it means to let injuries wash away while you always remember the kindness of another. When you remember that, you do the same.

As we start the month of November and we move along to November 13 - World Kindness Day - the first thought that popped into my head was that there’s hardly any kindness left in the world now. Declaration here - I’m not pessimistic, just maybe pragmatic or practical (you decide).

The world is getting hotter, we’re all stuck in a pandemic, jobs may be at risk, there’s impending doom everywhere I look, news has just become constant stressors.

You start to question if we can even offer any kindness in difficult times.

Then, I remembered this 2017 article from The New York Times aptly titled (if I might say) “An Ode to Acts of Kindness on the New York City Subway”. One baring aspect that I understood looking at amazing images in the article was that there are thousands of acts of kindness every day and everywhere - starting from a simple act of giving up your seat to an empathetic colleague that lends you a listening ear.

Kindness is always in the smallest things that you don’t notice.

Yes, the world feels like it’s burning down (at the moment) but these quiet simple understated moments create their own kind of energy. In a moment of utter misery, all you would need is one person to ask “are you okay” - that in itself is an act of kindness (small yes, but affects change after all). We remember that act and with that energy, we pass it along.

You write kindness in marble.

There are true lessons to be learnt through kindness. People say that with the pandemic, maybe people are starting to notice kindness a bit more. But with this month, try noticing the smaller things - maybe that one friend who makes an effort to cook/bake for you when you meet up or maybe even one who sends you the right gif. to make you happy (who knows right). So if you’ve made it through the whole article, here’s one thing you can do (at least for November):

Just don’t measure it, learn from it and always remember.

But if that doesn’t quite sound like your cup of tea, look at this way (being honest here), kindness is a skill. You possess the capability of mediating a disagreement or even just being attuned to a person’s emotions that show that you’re aware, you know what’s going on. In some sense, when you practice kindness (in a sense) to hone your skill, there are positive implications. You do notice the good in the world (saying this from life experience). But here’s a bonus (if you do need a bigger incentive) practising kindness will just - plain and simple - make you feel good - coupled lasting happiness with increased life satisfaction. Now, if that doesn’t sound good enough to be kind, just remember (also another thing that my grandma would say) -

If you’re not kind, don’t expect others to be kind to you.

Fair warning y’all.