kindness

This year, I chose my word for the year out of my box of words. "Kindness" chose me, and it felt right. I haven't felt kind in a long while, to myself or to anyone else. In 2011,  had moments of anger, sometimes intense. I had moments of pain and sadness, after my accident and after a friendship dissolved. I had moments of lonliness. That one permeated the entire year. And it all hardened me. I snapped more than usual. I gave up hope more often than I usually do. I stopped wishing people well. And I did things in my life, to myself, that got me nowhere. Kindness starts with myself, I know this. We all know this.

I never know how each word will play itself out over the year.

I do know that it begins with accepting a broken heart and leaving it open so that love can enter again.

It can manifest itself in small, anonymous acts.

It begs you to recognize your own worth.

It doesn't have to involve lightning bolt moments of great acts to change lives.

It's tenderness comes from loss.

It doesn't mean that you have to roll over and swallow it when others disrespect you and your worth.

It's simply about softening your heart and realizing that the broken spaces are where the light can enter.

Here's to a kind 2012. Happy New Year.