Kind of Nice

How you treat other people is more about who YOU are and less about the other people.
I'm sure I'm not the first person to say that, but I've realized it's pretty freakin' true.

It's obviously not good to be mean to others, so I want to focus on the difference in being nice and being kind. I mean, nice people are cool... they're polite, they tolerate others, they're... nice. But kindness surpasses niceness.

Forgive me, I've been too lazy (or, ahem, reallllly busy) to do the in-depth research about the root of the word "kind", but it seems like it is somehow related to words like "kin, kindred" etc. That's how I got my little epiphany.

When you are kind to someone, you are saying "I recognize we are kindred, we are related, we are of the same kind." It's looking beyond age, gender, race, sexual orientation and every other possible difference and acknowledging that we are all connected.

When I looked up "kind" in the thesaurus, "nice" wasn't even listed as a synonym! Niceness may tolerate you, but kindness accepts you... loves you because you are family.

Kindness is putting namaste into action. 

Words for Peace

Why is my blog called Word Peace? Well, there is that obvious play off of "world peace" but more so it's because writing brings me peace.

Life is what it is - beautiful and fun and joyous... and painful and awkward and overwhelming. We all need some form of release, some method for dealing with the highs and lows. I've been guilty of using a less-than-desirable method* to cope, as most of us have, but writing is the one that has blanketed me with a calmness every time - helped me rest when it's oh, say, after midnight and I have to be up really early but sleep just won't come.

Of course, I've also used words to discourage peace, in all fairness. (Hey, I'm only human - have I mentioned that part yet?) I don't believe in "bad" words, but words can certainly be used as weapons, be used as hurtful reminders of someone's failures, be used to encourage heartache instead of comfort. Most of the time, I manage to save the nasty words for my private journal (in really big, bold, chilling handwriting... it's much more effective that way) but whether they are taking canon ball dives off of my tongue or escaping from my fingertips like a creepy fog, sometimes I just say/write exactly what I'm thinking. Oops.

*If you're waiting for me to inform you what exactly that "less-than-desirable method" is, you might as well move on. I'm not ready to be quite that honest. I just figured the intrigue would keep you reading... heh heh.

So what's the point of this post? Mostly, I just want to be able to go to sleep (and I opted for writing here instead elsewhere because it's been a lil while). But also, I hope when you are feeling restless or sad or overwhelmed, you'll choose the method that ultimately heals you instead of the one that ends up destroying you.

*yawn*