GUTS TO BE KIND

Kindness is hard.

Because, you see, when you make the decision to pursue kindness, you don't get to choose who you dole that out to. It's not a conditional thing.  "If I like you, I'll be nice to you."

That's the easy way. But, it's not actually kindness.  That's just being nice to your friends.  Pretty easy.

It's being kind to the people you don't like, the people who rub you wrong, the people you don't agree with, the people who do things that you just don't understand...  that's the hard part. That's the part that requires you to dig deep into your beliefs, to dig into your patience, and to dig into your capacity for compassion.  That's where you find real kindness.

And it's elusive... because we don't want to do all that.  It's hard and it's work.  It's unpopular and you will find yourself being the only one.  And so it's also lonely.

But, in the final days... it's not the crowd that you will answer to. And so, still it's kindness that I seek after. I fall down a lot in its pursuit. I mess up. I snark off. I say things I shouldn't. I fail to exhibit compassion. I do what makes my selfish heart feel good and I fail.

And then I get up and I try again.

Hard things are not easy things.. but they're worthy things. So I keep trying.