CRAFT AND SPIRIT

Table of Contents

• I’M SCARED OF BEING AFRAID OF BEING KIND

• TRAINING - I AM THE RESULT OF MY DAILY ACTIONS

• MY CURIOSITY

CRAFT AND SPIRIT
I’M SCARED OF BEING AFRAID OF BEING KIND

It’s another episode in my life, another portion of moments appearing in front of me. Flashes of joy, bountiful laughter, undefended, vulnerable, and abundant. Boundless creativity, and a safe space to express it. My time here has already been impactful, informative, and creative. I’ve already had many different aspects of the self appear before me, I wonder what many different iterations of the self will appear next.

This world is substantial. With all those in it, each person carries a unique intrinsic value, a value that’s immeasurable and incomparable. Even now I see someone, someone with a blue shirt and grey flannel loosely covering it. Someone tossing something away, someone standing speaking to friends. Even now, everyone is in a unique location within themselves, but in a similar location to each other. However close to me someone gets, they’re still going through something entirely different than I am now.

In this vein, the unknown can feel daunting, and scary as you may accidentally poke and pop someone’s bubble with your prickly personality. Yet we’re afraid that any personality could pop that bubble, maybe even stepping on the toes of someone else. Is this social anxiety? At its base, probably, but it makes sense in the foundation of what it is. We’re thinking quite a bit here, how do we best approach this? Many of us wish to be kind, and part of kindness is space, but what if I need to get into someone’s space to be kind?

Assumption, or reading the situation, or proper deduction, uncertain what it is I feel the worst thing you could do is not do anything at all. Inaction. Too afraid to even try to be kind. Sure, if you never dance with a partner, you will never step on someone’s toes dancing. In contrast, you will also never learn you had heavy feet in the first place, never knowing what you may have been able to work on to improve for your partner.

Individual foundational development must derive from active testing. Stepping in and actuating the formulated ideas through sitting, reading, pondering, and wondering. No amount of waiting around will make you a better person. A balance of thought and wonderment, curiosity and mental exploration, with active learning and physical approach. Watching this person standing at a table with her friends, I realize that she might be too afraid to ask me for my empty chair at my table, it should spark me to get up and offer her the chair. Not take half of while I write this to build up the courage to do so. The poor girl has stood for quite a long time, and I’m wondering for how long she was also overthinking it. Standing isn’t the stressful part, that’s healthy for you, but the thought of someone overthinking their actions and approach to a stranger is far more important to alleviate.

What tends to happen is that 99% of the time your kindness is met with kindness and within that 99%, 45% could positively and remarkably shift the course of someone’s day. We get too hung up on that 1% where kindness is met with something very different. It’s either A: we failed to evaluate the situation properly and our kindness turned out to be something different, and B: we will never understand the intricacies of the individual in front of us.

Being afraid to be kind is what scares me most of all. I wonder how many people in this world are just afraid to be rejected for the kindness that they so desire to offer. I wonder if the root of pain is an ideal reciprocity that is untenable with the diversity of our world today. Especially as we’ve been distanced, divided, and confused with all that has happened in our world these past couple of years. Even so, there are so many small things we can do, or rather, we get to do to bring kindness into the lives of an individual. Maybe through this, everyone could be a touch less scared of being kind to each other. One can only try and not be afraid to do so.

Become a paying subscriber of Premium to get access to this post and other subscriber-only content.

Already a paying subscriber? Sign In.

A subscription gets you:

• • 2x weekly emails
• • First to receive all video and podcast work
• • First looks into my projects and craft
• • Consciously curated curiosities 2x weekly
• • Signs left on my journey 🪧 2x weekly