Vow Of Kindness
Start today. Take the vow to be the kindest person you can be.
My friends, we often look at the world and weep at its sharp edges. We see the shadows of indifference and the cold winds of judgment, and we ask, "When will the world change?"
But we must stop looking at the horizon and start looking at our own hands. The world will not change because of a decree or a great storm. It will change because you and I decide that love is a verb, not a feeling.
Starting today, I ask you to take up a new kind of struggle. Not against others, but against the smaller versions of yourselves.
Be the Kindest Version of You: Kindness is not a sign of weakness; it is the ultimate strength. It is the ability to see the divinity in the person who disagrees with you.
Open Your Mind: A mind that is closed is like a room without windows. It soon becomes stagnant. Open the shutters. Listen to understand, not to refute.
The Power of Care: To care for another is a sacred duty, but do not forget the vessel through which that care flows. You must care for yourself, your body, your peace, your spirit. So that your well is never dry.
We are all threads in the same Great Cloth. When you tear at another, you tear at yourself. When you mend a wound for a stranger, you heal a part of your own soul.
It is the most difficult work we will ever do. It requires us to be loving when it is easier to be cold and accepting when it is easier to judge.
Your First Step
Do not wait for a better time. There is no "tomorrow" for the heart.
• Give a word of encouragement to someone who expects a critique.
• Forgive a small debt of the spirit.
• Treat your own body with the same gentleness you would give a child.
If we can do this, even in small ways, we do not just imagine a better world—we create it.