Kindness begins and ends with us....

There is nothing quite as special as kindness. It is not a service, it is not a skill, it is simply love wrapped up in an eight letter word. Kindness is a special sort of magic that is ordinary yet not ordinary at all. Kindness is the antidote that will bring peace into a heart that is broken, a heart that is at war, a heart that has lost all hope.

Kindness is smiling at a stranger. Kindness is sending that text after a row. Kindness is being generous to someone who needs your forgiveness. Kindness is holding the door open for that next hand that is about to follow yours. Kindness is loving yourself so you can love others. Kindness is withholding judgement fullstop. Kindness is being charitable when someone else needs your strength. Kindness is hugging someone when they say they’re ok. Kindness is reaching past your comfort point to help someone out of the dark. Kindess is a million little things.

A world that advocates for ‘being kind’ has somehow forgotten how to be kind in the headlines and news reports. Our world seems to really hate itself at the moment if you were to rely on the news to tell you what’s happening. Sadly there are an awful lot of people who simply have lost their way on this journey called life. So many people are now led by the darkness. So many terrible wrongdoings happening on a global level and so many wrongdoings happening on a human to human level too. Killings. Murders. Abuse. Wars. Distaste of the other has indeed become the headline and the theme of so many homes. So many hearts broken unnecessarily and it seems so little accountability. It’s really would leave you feeling low about what comes next and worse still what are we really doing to our beautiful world… to our beautiful human race. And see this is where I am going to come with my ever eager Libra self and try my very best to balance out the darkness that rules our headlines…..Here I try my best to reflect deeply on the power of kindness and even though the world is truly quite the shitshow when it comes to what seems to be the worse leaders ever to be in charge all around the world… we can indeed play our part on the ground, no matter how dark it gets.

See even though terrible things are being done by humans to each other, this is our time to do exactly the opposite. This is our reminder to never allow darkness take over our true calling, our true nature, our true wish and want to be good humans. And even though the headlines and the major sharers of news do not seem interested in the good, we must not let editors, algorithm’s, governments or money hungry humans lead us from the path of light and love. See it is always easy to sell a dark story, a lie, a negative, a harsh world doesn’t even need to be sold, it just falls like hand into glove into that part of us where fear not only lives but thrives. We all have that space inside of us and just like the story of the wolf, kindness and fear are two wolves that we all battle with. If we feed the wolf of fear, we will be afraid of almost everything, but if we feed the wolf of kindness, we will indeed try our best to battle the darkness with light and we will win. So that is where my story today is leading. Like the wolf within us, we must make the choice to be kind, to be loving, to be caring, to be friendly, to be loved and to love.

I truly believe that yes lots of things will happen us out of our control but for those parts, all we can do is try out best to respond in the best way we can. Those factors are out of our control and we cannot dictate them nor can we keep them from our path of fate. What we can control is how we behave, how we react, how we speak, how we listen, and how we love.

The wonderful thing about being a human is we are transformative in every moment. We might think we are not, somehow we have created the self belief that we are stuck like cement in our ways but we are not stuck at all, we simply need to shift our mindset and off we go. And see, that is where the magic lies. We can indeed do the wrong thing whether by mood, habit or even choice but equally and magically, we can rectify that wrongdoing simply by moving back into the light of our spirit and approaching that situation with the right words, the right text, the right tone, the right behaviour.

And that is where kindness comes into its own. If I’m not nice to you, and then I reflect on that, I have the time and the opportunity to change the way I made you feel. Yes it is not always easy, we have to move a piece inside of ourselves that feels cemented but amazingly with a few little words from that right spot inside your heart everything can be ok again. Nobody is perfect in this world and really it is important to try out best not to judge, not to hold people to some unimaginable standard, and not to place expectations on others. The only person we need to hold accountable in this world is ourselves. We are indeed the only ones that need to be at peace. If we are at peace inside ourselves, if we withhold harsh judgement or criticism on ourselves, then we will be able to love from within and kindness will flow from us. As they say, if you want to know the true form of how someone feels, watch them as they go through something horrible, something horrendous and watch how they respond to the tests of this world, then you will truly know what lies within. And I love that because it is so true.

If I can’t be kind to myself, well then how could I ever be kind to someone else. And when you think about that, what does that say about the world we live. Sadly for me, I think it means there are an awful lot of people who really don’t like themselves. And as I mentioned before the only way for us to help those people is through the only antidote I know that truly works - kindness.

Kindess is the magic that can fix everything. Kindness to yourself leads to kindness to others. And of course in the village of kindness, my other favourite active helping hand lives - FRIENDSHIP. See kindness and friendship go hand in hand. Usually if you find one, you will find the other and that is where the real magic of this world not only lives but it thrives. Good friends will save your life over and over. You will save your friends lives over and over. And it won’t be some big gesture that saves a life, but a million little things.Where you sow and spread kindness, friendship will bloom and following those two is their bestie LOVE. And see love fixes everything. Combine those three together and you will indeed find the true natural spirit of human connection. This is what we are really pining for. And this is exactly what all these angry, bitter and harsh souls are really missing.

So if we are to soften our harsh world that seems to be utterly overwhelmed and overflowing with darkness in 2024, we must be the ones to not give up on the light. We all carry the gift of kindness inside our souls and it’s time to lean in more than ever. Working hard to keep our minds from wanting to judge or criticise but instead leading from the front on the ground where I absolutely know the antidote will indeed work, one broken heart to the next. We must walk forward with our lanterns of kindness, our compassion hands of hope and step by step lead from within bringing friendship and love wherever we can.

Never stop shining the light that lives inside you. No matter how dark the world gets, and famously to quote the words of Leonard Cohen, ‘there is a crack in everything, that is how the light gets in. We cannot be the generation that gives up on that light!

Keep shining. Keep looking up. Keep being you.

Love always,

Lou x

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To celebrate the two best elements of any village, ‘kindness’ and ‘friendship’ and of course to encourage connection and love, I am holding our first weekly virtual social today - Monday 14th of October from 7.45pm-8.45pm (Irish Time) :) The rules of this social gathering is you must bring your favourite mug with your favourite drink and after that, it’s fun, laughter and love and relaxation from there on out.

The details to be part of this social messing are all on the poster below.

I never really know what is going to happen once I open the zoom door but one thing I can personally guarantee is that I will leave you feeling better than when you enter. Kindess and friendship and lots of giggles await ;)

Please feel free to leave a comment below if you feel drawn to & thanks so much for being here.

You keep me writing & I will be forever grateful to you for being here. It’s always good to know who reads my words x

Final side note; I’m listening to Snow Patrol’s new album, am obsessed with Coldplay new album ‘Moon Magic’, I’m watching for the millionth time, ‘The Big Bang Theory’ and ‘Derry Girls’, and this week also sees Gran’s birthday on Thursday while hoping to share a surprise piece of news out to you then so watch this space ;) More fun & messing to come to keep you looking up x