I am over it: I choose not to respond in kind, I choose to respond in kindness.

I’m over it. It’s not that I am not willing to be aware of the events of the world. The horrific acts people commit and are able and willing to commit. I am fully aware. How can one not be. Even if you stop watching tv and don’t listen to the news, there is plenty of information shared on social media. That social media is not just on the internet, but in the real world. Those places where more than two people come together, such as work, and then talk about what is happening. And seemingly nothing good has been happening lately.

Here’s why I am over it. As usual, there’s more people than I care to count, who take events like this, and push it for their own personal agenda. Be it to profit. Be it to promote their own business or person. Be it purely egoistic or narcissist reasons. I actually do believe in prayers, sending out positive energy and vibes, asking for whatever you believe in to help you through times that are unbearable to deal with. From the smallest scale, which would be you and your personal world, to the largest scale, which would be every living being and the whole cosmos, there are times when you have to let go of your pretend reign of “ I know how to handle this” and succumb to becoming numb enough to not become infected by vicious energies that are trying to sway you into negativity and hate.

Moreover, here is why I am really over it. In my own little world, every single day I am given to be here, I make my best effort to get through it with kindness. I don’t have to tell you how challenging that can be at times. The more I practice it, the simpler it actually gets. It’s becoming an engrained habit. I choose not to respond in kind, I choose to respond in kindness. The drive through cashier who screws up my order and forgets to give me my change back. Keep the change, have a good day. The person I am reporting to at work, losing his cool about things that have no detrimental impact on the work performed, let alone on life in general. Yes Sir, we’ll fix it for you, have a good day. The woman lost in the parking garage, taking up all my time by telling me her life story, causing me to be late for work, as I am attempting to direct her in the right direction. Yes Ma’am, it’ll work out just fine, have a good day.

I have come to the acceptance that this is what I can do. This is what I can contribute. This is what I can bring to the table of life. Kindness. It has me feeling like “Horton hears a who” by Dr. Seuss. That tiny town of people living on a beautiful flower that is on its way of being destroyed but Horton hears these tiny people and saves the flower. Their world. I am that tiny world living on a beautiful flower. I am choosing to live my life in kindness and wonder to contribute beauty to it. So then maybe by the sheer laws of the ripple effect, the way I choose to live my life will impact anyone in it and around it in such a positive manner that they themselves choose to make more choices of kindness. Expanding it within and outwardly of their own world they live in as well.

"Strength is often equated with the capacity to attack, but to me it means the internal toughness to take whatever life deals out without losing your humanity. It is those who never stoop to retaliation, never demand an eye for an eye, who are truly strong. They have the toughness to be tender, even sweet, while resisting violence with all their heart." – Eknath Easwaran, from the Blue Mountain Journal, Winter 2015

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