For today, I’m thinking about how often cruelty gets mistaken for power. Hate is loud, organized, shameless. It takes up space without apology. Kindness, meanwhile, is too often framed as small, private, delicate—a courtesy extended when convenient.
I don’t believe that anymore.
Kindness can be muscular. It can interrupt. It can defend the vulnerable, tell the truth, show up again and again when cynicism would be easier. It can cross the street first. It can knock on doors others keep bolted. It can refuse the performance of indifference.
The world does not need kinder people in the passive sense. It needs people willing to wield kindness like a force. Fierce kindness. Public kindness. Costly kindness. The kind that risks embarrassment. The kind that chooses compassion without asking permission.
Not soft. Not quiet.
May we learn to love with the same intensity some people devote to hate. May we become impossible to ignore.
Feel Kindness as Fiercely as Hate
Let is surge through the gut,
raw and unfiltered.
Let it flood the bloodstream,
bright as outrage.
Let it shake the jaw loose,
spill from the mouth.
Let it cross the street
without waiting.
Let it pound on locked doors.
Let it stain the air.
Not soft.
Not quiet.
Let it demand response,
refuse to be ignored.
Let it spread, relentless,
until even the hardest heart
cannot hold against it.
