Above all things......

(I had no idea that today was World Kindness Day when i wrote this!)

Be kind.

I know that it's most often thought that love should be above all things.....but I've been thinking a lot about that this morning. I've been thinking about it because of an incident that happened over the past couple of days.

I think it's unrealistic to love everyone. I'll openly admit that I don't.  How can one love a perfect stranger? There are people I know reasonably well that I don't love. There are people I'm related to in one way or another that I don't love. It's not that I hate them. It's not that I don't like them. I feel ambivalent. That may sound harsh, but think about it for a minute...is it really that bad? I am served every day by lovely people in the post office. They are kind, polite, pleasant and give me good service....but I neither love or like them or dislike them. I am polite and kind and pleasant right back....because that's the way I roll and everyone deserves people to be kind, polite and pleasant.

OK....so I'm sounding all Stepford....bear with me.

Over the course of this week my workplace received an email from an individual complaining at what they perceived as a lack of service and communication. Naturally this is going to happen from time to time. An organisation cannot please 100% of the people 100% of the time. Some people are irritated by receiving information and communications on a fortnightly basis, some people are outraged when the said information is sent monthly. There's never a happy medium.

What disturbs me however is when the person delivering the complaint targets the organisation as a whole and the employees within. They make it personal and write in a way to stick a knife into the heart of the employee reading the complaint. They don't stick to the subject of their discontent but they deliberately set out to tarnish an entire organisation and hurt those working for it.

I was one of the first people who read the communication. I was hurt. I was not the one to respond to the communication. Someone else was, and they drafted a response,  checked it with a couple of other colleagues, edited it according to their feedback before sending it in response to the person. The response was measured, kind, explanatory and positive.

The response they received was not so much. It was mean and once again attacked the organisation and personally attacked my colleague.

I was more than incensed. What was written was completely unnecessary.

The thing I wish people would remember is that there are people reading these communications. People with lives, who have their own struggles. Was that person to know that my colleague is dealing with things that seem insurmountable right now? No...but that is my point. You can never know what your fellow human being is dealing with at any given point in time, so the best thing, the kindest thing is to always be kind. Always. I felt for my colleague so much.  They're dealing with so much right now and then to get attacked by a faceless stranger like that..... *shakes head*

All of us here on this big, blue marble in space deserve a little kindness. We all don't have to love each other but we can at least be decent and kind, showing respect and dignity in everything we say and do. All of us at one point or another, struggle with something. It may be a struggle simply to organise oneself enough to get out the door on time each day. It may be a struggle with an eating disorder, anxiety or depression, or it may be a struggle to cope with the care of aging parents. Notice that none of the examples I mentioned would necessarily have obvious symptoms that people could observe. Often, struggles are invisible.

Be kind. Always.

Just be kind.