How Deep Is Your Kindness? (Holly Schindler)

Kindness isn't one thing. It can run deep or run shallow. It can come into the room looking like politeness (say, opening a door for someone) or it can arrive at the exact moment when someone is in dire need of a friend. 

Most of the time, kindness is simply seeing a situation from someone else's point of view. 

I was walking one of my dogs a few years ago when we were stopped by a boy, probably about eight or so, who of course had to talk to the pup. He gently introduced himself to the dog and explained to me, "Well, he's never met me."

"Yeah," I agreed. "Sometimes, strangers are scary."

At which point, the boy's eyes got big and he said to me, "Oh! Well, I'm Trevor." As though I was saying that he was a stranger, and that might be scary to me. 

Gus, who was a very NOT scary dog.

It was a sweet moment, and one I never forgot. It is not an adult skill to see the world from someone else's eyes. But it's one that's awfully easy to lose once you cross that adult threshold.

~

Holly Schindler is the author of the MG The Junction of Sunshine and Lucky