While channel surfing to check out the morning news last week, I stopped at the Today Show. They were talking about the recent death of Style Contributor, Bobbi Thomas’ husband and displayed her Instagram post. Below is an excerpt…

“With all the fear, anger, and division going on in the world right now, it’s so easy to get upset about the lack of normalcy. But I beg you, everyone reading this, hold onto what you do have right now instead of focusing on what you don’t. One thing we all have is kindness. Absorb it, extend it, exhaust it. Because in the end, the ONLY thing that matters is love. If you’re lucky enough to have it, please appreciate it, every moment, every day. Especially during the hard parts. There will never be enough time and some of our forevers are much too short. As I type through tears, I embrace gratitude …” – Bobbi Thomas

What beautiful, sad, powerful words! They got me thinking about a lot of things… family, gratitude, kindness…

As I thought, I realized that after experiencing the pain of betrayal, harassment, and bullying for several years, the concept of kindness rarely comes to mind. My life was affected by some who chose not to be kind. I continued to think… kindness used to be more present in my life. And then I recalled a lesson in the Yale course The Science of Well-Being called ‘Stuff that Really Makes Us Happy’. It talked about things that contribute to happiness (as shown by research). Guess what one of those things is? Yep – kindness.

So, as part of my journey to heal, I am going to take Bobbi’s advice to absorb and extend kindness. To be honest, I am a little hesitant because in some ways, I am still in defense mode. It is easier to shut people out than to risk being hurt.

Where to start? There are many ways to absorb and embrace kindness. One thing I used to do for many years was volunteer. So I had an idea of a good way to start… support and spread the word about some of the nonprofit organizations that are making a difference in the world. Each month in 2021 I will make a donation and write a blog post about a different nonprofit / NGO. I have already selected the first one… stay tuned.