An Intro to Kindness

Welcome.

I don’t know how you’ve stumbled onto my stream of consciousness, but by now you’re probably wondering about this whole “pursuit of kindness” thing.

Many would think that this is a blog, following a writer who is taking on the challenge of spending a year being kinder to everyone she encounters and documenting it on a blog. No. That’s not what this is. That’s the sequel to the latest Julia Roberts movie.

Kindness is something that many cynics in my life have claimed died along with chivalry and children who know the words “ma’am, sir, please, and thank you.” I’m here to prove these folks wrong, in as kind a way as possible.

For the next several months I plan on documenting as many stories, thoughts, and anything else that exists as possible to prove the existence of kindness.

Now, if I’m devoting this much time to the concept of kindness, it would be helpful to define it for you folks.

The great folks at generatekindness.org wrote

“Kindness is the white blood cell of humankind. It is an act of healing that touches both the healer and the healed. Kindness must be generated – it must arise from within a human being and be expressed. “

That’s a good start, but I think kindness goes further. Kindness is in the heart. It’s intentional. It comes from people, animals –especially dogs because honestly, I’m a dog person – and we can’t forget the ultimate kindness. Kindness originated somewhere, and I’m going to venture to say that kindness originated in the same place everything else originated, as taught to me in my freshman year of high school.

So here are the rules. We talk about kindness. This kindness can be the kindness of a friend, stranger, dog, family member, or of a savior. And we incorporate music in as many posts as possible, because music is joyful and so is kindness, and now both music and kindness will consume my life.

Throughout this journey, I’m going to be adjusting my previous definition of kindness as seen fit. Hopefully by the end of this whole shenanigan, we can fully understand kindness. What it is, where it comes from, and how it can spread.

Peace.