On Kindness

I love my new green teapot.

I've been thinking this week about kindness.  I strive to be a kind person; I make it a goal each day to treat people kindly.  Some days I succeed; some days I fail. But everyday I try, and I make amends when I fall short. 

But this week I considered what it means to treat myself with kindness. I thought about how wonderful it would be to apply the same thoughtful attention to kindness towards myself as I do for others. I started the day on Saturday with the intention of treating myself kindly.  Later that morning while shopping in a local store, I stumbled across the teapot  pictured above.  I wasn't shopping for a teapot, but there it was. In green.  A symbol of  my intention and an opportunity to act on it.  So I bought the teapot.  I also bought a set of four kitchen towels, in shades of green floral and geometric prints.  This little purchase reminded me that green is my favorite color and that simple, useful objects of beauty make me happy. And that treating myself kindly is nurturing and good. 

It occurs to me that kindness is very close to gratitude. That it is made of gentleness. That it is the color of beauty and the fragrance of loveliness.