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Small Kindnesses

​"Cracks in the clouds

piercing the grey"

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Recommended listening:​

The Warmth - Incubus​​​​

Hope these days is a thing that requires a little courage. I think we’re sometimes scared that if we’re brave enough to look for it, we might find that there’s none left. Safer then, and much easier, to keep our eyes down and indulge in some easy cynicism.

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But we’re not born with a shortage of hope and wonder. Anyone who has spent time with a small child knows that. But, for most of us, childhood was a while ago, and we have since had our seeing messed with. Thousands of newsreels and social media posts program us to look at the truly terrible things of the world, while ignoring the small kindnesses that are often going on just past the edge of our phone screens.

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One of the wonderful things about creativity—writing especially—is that it makes you notice things. You linger a moment longer on falling snow or the way two friends’ faces look when they meet in a coffee shop, and suddenly you start seeing the small glimmers of hope threaded through ordinary days. You rarely have to wait long.

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I’m not trying to pull some emotional sleight of hand here. I’m not suggesting that we no longer need to worry about wars and famines just because the nice man at number 34 took out old Ted’s wheelie bin for him when the pavement was icy. But I do think it’s healthy to stop and look, to remember how many people are quietly being good to one another. We often shy away from talking about beauty and goodness for fear of sounding twee and naïve, but maybe paying attention to the small kindnesses is one way of restoring a little balance inside our ever more troubled minds.

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During the short train journey that I've used to write this, I’ve seen the train guard let a young person off a full fare, even though they’d forgotten their rail card, a passenger reassure someone else that they were on the right train, and two friends laughing at some joke or memory they shared.

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So what? That’s hardly going to solve world poverty, is it? No, but it’s a small reminder that fundamentally, human beings are kind and really quite beautiful. We just lose our way sometimes. But, if you are brave enough to take a good look, it’s surprising how short a distance you have to go before you see signs of hope.

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Today, I’d like to share with you some of the small kindnesses I’ve seen while trying to walk through the world with my eyes a little more open. Each one is true, and all were witnessed in the last year. There were many more; these were simply the ones that worked best on the page. I hope they make you smile, and go some way toward offsetting the darkness.