MONDAY MUSINGS: A Kindness Revolution

I am up on my soapbox today.  I usually don't go up on the soapbox and I just do my own thing and get on with life.  But this weekend, there was a moment that struck me and well let's just put it this way:  I’d like to start a Kindness Revolution.  Not a “random act of kindness type of day” because for some reason that just says to me that you should randomly bestow kindness on people when you feel like it.  Nope, I want an all out Kindness Revolution, where you are completely, no questions asked, uttlerly kind to everyone you meet all day every day of your life!  I know, I really do know what you are thinking. It's a tall request, I suppose, but not unfeasible or unthinkable by any sense of the imagination.

But let me tell you my story: I was standing in a grocery store on the weekend frazzled and whipping around grabbing this and that and everything in between, when I stepped back and took a deep breath and stopped and really looked around me.  What I saw horrified me to my very core.  People were cutting each other off with their carts, or reaching around others to grab things with no “excuse me please”, they were sighing loudly, muttering obscenities under their breath, walking past elderly individuals who had just dropped something and clearly needed assistance in retrieving the items, walking out with their groceries and never once uttering a thank you to the bagger or the cashier.  In short, it was the epitome of rudeness at it’s best and I was stunned into complete silence as I tried to negotiate and reason why there was a lack of manners, a lack of compassion, a lack of patience but mostly a lack of kindness.

As I stood there, I got to thinking to myself: When did this happen to us and when did we decide that this behaviour was acceptable?

Well I have to tell you, it is no longer acceptable to me.  I for one am tired of the excuses.  I'm tired of hearing that we are all busy, that things are rushing around us at the speed of light, that we have a million things we have to get done in a day, that the day is not long enough, that this person or that person was rude to me, that I am fatigued, that work is crazy, my personal life is neurotic, the kids, the dogs and everyone in between wants a piece of me.  It is what it is and it does not preclude us from being kind.  We are all in the same boat, with the same issues, with the same pressures, with the same stresses, with the same demands, and if we don’t start being kind to each other, well.... this boat will eventually capsize with all of us in it!

So let’s stop being rude, for lack of a better word, and let’s start being kind.

It’s not hard.  It starts with thank you’s and pleases and it ends with have a lovely evening or good day to you.  It's about opening doors for anyone.  It’s giving an acknowledgment when someone holds the door open.  It’s about giving a helping hand with no expectations. It’s about telling others that you appreciate their assistance. It’s shaking someone’s hand when you meet them. It’s giving a person an ear and hug when they need it.   It’s looking at a stranger in the eye and smiling and saying good morning as you walk past them.  It’s assisting an elderly person onto the bus.  It’s stopping and petting the little dog who is waiting outside for their human to come back. It’s about waiving to your neighbour when you are outside.  It’s about helping the single woman with her snow covered driveway.  It’s about making that casserole for the elderly man down the road who lost his wife. It’s about putting someone before you.  It’s about understanding that everyone is stressed out and you are not the only one.  It’s about stopping yourself from being self absorbed to becoming self aware. It’s about giving just a little of yourself. It’s about being a better human. 

It’s about being kind.

So let’s just be kind.

Let’s go out there and start a Kindness Revolution that this world has never seen.  Five, twenty or a hundred people, it doesn’t matter, it only takes one to make a difference. And I believe that it could be you because I have faith in you.

As for me, I pledge to be kind everyday of my life. Not kinder as I could be, but as kind as I should be because you deserve for me to be kind to you.

And by the way, if I didn’t say so, thank you for reading my blog today and letting me be up on my soapbox.  It was really very kind of you.  I am now stepping off.

Until Next Time.
Smooches Pooches