Kind

Kind. Be Kind.
It’s what we all want.
Of the world. Of our children. Of ourselves.
Kindness. More kindness.

Calm. Keep Calm.
We want that too.
Around us. Within us. Between us.
Calmness. More calmness.

For a while I tried, I tried really hard.
To be kinder. To be calmer.
I focussed and practiced and worked at it.
It helped. But it never got easier.
As time went on I still had to try and work and focus just as hard as ever.

Until my perspective changed.
Until I saw, realised, experienced that these things have always been in me.
That they are what I’m made of, what we are all made of. Not something I need to create or control.

That they, kindness and calm, are what is at the core of us. What we would all be in every moment if it wasn’t for the layers that build up on top.

The parts of us that are hurt and scared build up in layers within us.
They are what get in the way.
They are what grumble and growl,
over the top of the kindness and calm that is there underneath.

In the moments where we are less than kind.
It’s our hurt parts and our fear that we become.
In the moments where calmness escapes us.
It’s our hurt parts and our fear that take charge.

By being with the hurt and scared parts.
Learning to sit and stay with them, listen to them. I have experienced them lifting away layer by layer so that the kindness, calmness and ultimately love they thought they were protecting could come up and out into the light.

Our hurt parts and our scared parts get in the way AND they are important and worthy of our love.

They only stay for as long as it takes for us to be with them. They only get to stay as long as we avoid them. As long as we let them think we need them to be in charge.

While they remain in charge the best we can do is try to be kind and work to be calm- try and try and try- work harder and harder and harder- rather than simply, easily basking in the kindness and calm that we were born and made of.