Week 48. Illuminate the darkness

These last few weeks before the New Year are the darkest here, in the northern hemisphere (people from the southern hemisphere, please pin it and get back to this in June) – days are dark and short if there’s no snow where it’s expected, then it’s even gloomier. Exactly at this time, the best idea is to seek the light within. We all have the gift of kindness, and in these times, when everything seems dark around us, we can share our gifts with others. Colorful lights and decorations in and around our houses can lift our moods up a bit but that is only an external measure and it doesn’t fill up the sadness, the loneliness, and the longing for belonging inside when it creeps up. In turn, try to remember that there are things that warm us from within, such as sincere smiles for strangers, shared laughter, small interactions with people in the same situation as we are (at a bus stop, in a queue in the local shop), a kind “hello, how are you?” to our neighbor, and so on. As the year is coming to a close, people are in a rush to finish up piles of work, to prepare for the holidays, so things can get irritable and frustrating. Sometimes it's nice to be the person, who can see through it all and who can light up the tension. To our closest ones, as to strangers, sometimes by saying the simplest but the most sincere things we can warm two hearts at once, theirs and ours. So if you have someone in your life, whom you don’t say many nice words throughout the year, try to tell them how much you value them now. You never know how long you two have and if the other person is feeling particularly lonely at this time of the year, as many people do. A simple and sincere “you light up my life” can open up a new chapter in your lives or strike a more heartfelt conversation, that maybe you haven’t had in a long time, if ever, with that person.

Go on, give it a go, what is there to lose? And if the other person would push back or be confused by your unexpected words, you can laugh it off by saying a Christmas bug bit you and made you say that 😀.

Just remember, kindness multiplies when it’s given, so don’t wait for that specific day in a year to share it, light up the darkness with it whenever you can.

Have a week of meaningful and spontaneous acts of kindness!