Kindness Matters

No one wins a war: one side may lose less and may spin that as victory

– Daniel C. Maguire

Kindness matters. If you look around, it is easy to see that everyone struggles. The world is a battle field and we are in a constant state of war.

If you watch the news for five minutes, you risk believing that the world is a dangerous place. Countries fight other countries, cultures fight other cultures, people fight in the name of God and in the name of their religion, people fight their neighbors, and their spouses. They fight their friends and their children. At work, they fight the boss or their colleagues. Even if they don’t fight for survival, they fight for justice or for love. If the fight is not with others, they fight time, weight, aging.

There is no end to the struggles. No wonder life seems so exhausting. I believe the source of all the struggles is the fight with our fears.
A fight, no matter what the cause is, is still a fight. It is like a war between two, even if the two are inside of us. I have learned a very good rule in life: In war, there are no winners. Some lose more while others lose less. In any case, there are only losers. So, if we fight, no matter who and what, we always lose.

Kindness is cool

The only way to stop fighting and bring balance to our life is to use kindness. Kindness towards ourselves and towards others. As parents, raising kids to think that kindness is cool is our contribution to a better world.

We used to wonder where war lived, what it was that made it so vile. And now we realize that we know where it lives… inside ourselves.

– Albert Camus

This week, on November 13, is World Kindness day and the world kindness movement is having events around the world to promote kindness. There are 20 nations taking part in this movement. I would encourage you to look up the one in your country and take part in the events. If you don’t have a movement in your country, help establish one.

As you can see on this blog, kindness is a very important tool for me. A good tool for parenting, for education, relationships and society. You can read many popular posts in this blog about kindness:

• The Art of Letting Go: Be Right or Be Kind
• Make a List: Ways to be Kind
• Happily Wealthy Family: Buying Happiness by Giving
• Six Human Needs: Contribution
• How to Raise Friendly Kids: Me and You Together
• Everyone Can Be a Hero
• Pay it Forward
• Be Friendly, Be Happy

Kindness works like a boomerang. What you send out comes back to you. I think this video is a good way of understanding it.

Be kind!
Ronit

Related

No More War

Last week, When Gal wrote about the dark side of Quid Pro Quo, it made me think immediately of solutions to that effect. You see, much like in Gal's example of fighting with your husband, wife, kids, your own parents or just anybody else, life is full of little personal…

February 22, 2010

In "Relationships / Marriage"

War and Peace are Personal

People often wonder how a large-scale conflict, involving hundreds of thousands of people, causing numerous deaths and leaving countless people emotionally and/or physically maimed for life can occur. Yes, I am talking about war. All around the world, no matter when you look, there is some war going on. Sometimes,…

August 24, 2011

In "Opinion"

World Peace and Harmony through Kindness

Recently, I was asked to take part in a panel at the United Nations World Peace Conference. The panel members were chosen for being "inspiring people who contributed to world peace", each in a different way. My way of spreading peace is, and always has been, education. I talked about…

September 8, 2015

In "Education / Learning"