Glimmers of kindness

“Because it’s not enough to be kind. One should be kinder than needed.”

~ August Pullman, character in Wonder by R. J. Palacio

If one looks at any viral social media post, one is given an example of the worst of humanity. There are the armchair experts who deem everything is wrong, the ones who purposely poke until fights break out and the message given is completely obliterated, and some of the most vile of things said that make anyone weep.

The world is a mess. It makes some people want to just wash their hands of any part of human relationship and just give up. Kindness seems to be fleeting.

Kindness is not niceness. Niceness can be used to seek out something in return. Niceness is polite and can be fake. Niceness can have ulterior motives, whereas kindness seeks to improve everyone’s life. Kindness does not rejoice in wrong doing. It does not insist on its own way. It is not arrogant or envious.

But that doesn’t mean that kindness is a doormat to be walked all over. Kindness sets boundaries and condemns rudeness. It gives credit where credit is due and faces difficulties with strength. Kindness is expecting respect in return for the respect given. And it gives respect to everyone.

Kindness is an action, a sacrifice, a conscious manifestation in the face of adversity to give everyone a chance to walk with everyone else. It is deciding to cultivate relationships with those deemed unlovable. It’s standing up and reminding others who they are and who they can be, even as the world mocks it as weakness. It takes a great deal of practice to be kind, to find that interior motivation to do good things just because. It’s finding the glimmers in life and then sharing them with others for the mere satisfaction of watching that magic spread like wildfire.

Don’t know what a glimmer is? A glimmer is the glitter of the world. It is the opposite of a trigger point. It is a micro moment of joy, a piece of love, a little bit of magic that can be found if one learns how to look for it. But like triggers, glimmers must be encountered to be experienced. But kindness takes these glimmers a step further. Kindness not only actively looks for them, but also shares them with others, reaching into the darkness of this world to shine light and hope and peace and joy. It’s taking kindness to the next level, showing the world that it is often better to be kinder than it is needed.

“What if we lived with a heart of kindness / What if we loved like we’ve been loved / If that’s all that we’re remembered for / Well, let that be enough.”

~ Stephen Curtis Chapman “Kindness”

In my soon-to-be published book Heirs to the Realm, several realms of the Portals Series worlds are under attack. Magic’s ancient foe – evil – seeks to wipe out the very essence of all that is magical. But the characters hold on to their hope (and one of the characters is even named Esperance as an analogy of that hope) and search for their love, their peace, their joy, and their moments of magic in their quest to defeat the evil that seeks to overcome them. But who knows if they will succeed, but they all will continue work together to make the world a better place and fight to keep their kindness in the forefront.

That’s one of my ways of trying to show kindness in this world. It’s my way of spreading magic and light to as many as I can. It’s one of the glimmers I hope to achieve in this darkness.

Find a way to cultivate your own kindness. Be a glimmer in a world of judgementalism. Be magic where evil seeks to steal your shine. In a world where you can be anything you like, be kind.

Stay magical.

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