Kindness is Colorblind
With the current climate, it is easy to be swept away to a side, where we think we are safest and protected. What happens is that the rigidity of a fixed opinion keeps us naive, cold, and disconnected. Kind of like the Arctic and Antarctica, so far apart in thought that they appear to have the same basic characteristics. No offense to the penguins, but I like to keep myself closer to the warmth.
What brings us closer to the warmth? As I take root in personal reflection and social observation when times divide, I notice the one characteristic that is a constant winner and fast track quality to the warmth is kindness. And when I chose to open my eyes to kindness, I began witnessing it immediately.
The last place you’d think kindness existed is the airport. Every walk of life in an airport, add the stress of being out of routine, changing schedules, connecting flights, hurry up and wait mentality, let’s just say you get the “best” worst of people. But is that really true? When I opened my eyes to kindness, I witnessed beauty.
An older woman and man sat across from my husband and me as we sipped our morning coffee and ate our sandwiches. The woman offered to share her little jeweled mirror as she watched me carefully guess where my lips were as I applied lipstick.
An elderly woman sat in the wrong seat on the airplane and a cowboy-looking gentleman told her to stay and took her assigned seat in the back of the plane. I sat next to that elderly woman from Jamaica, who was visiting her grandchildren. I noticed her having trouble with her seatbelt. She had arthritis and couldn’t unbuckle. I was filled with awe of kindness. I wanted to add to the growing kindness energy and chose to help her. Yay! Another good deed.
As I sat back in my chair, I got so excited to share this with my friend, whom I am visiting, one of my soul sisters. I can't imagine not knowing her or not being a part of her world and her in mine. I am filled with so much love when I think of her, and it continues to amaze me that I can only remember being in each other’s presence only 6 times, and this trip was my 7th since 2019!
What we share is energy, an energy that is filled with truth, compassion, validation, empowerment, so much laughter we could create an earthquake, and overall, kindness. Without a doubt, we have our own opinions about [enter random topic here], but what we know is that we meet each other with kindness.
Just because we look different or think differently, it won’t keep us apart. We come to the center, meet on the “equator”, a space where it's warm, full of love, passionate expression combined with intelligence, and an occasional margarita (in our case).
My ask…look for kindness and if you somehow can’t find it, take the next step and create it. Create it at home, create it at work, create it while looking in the mirror. All of it counts, it adds up, and creates an environment we can be proud of.
Xo,
Elizabeth