May Day

It’s time to turn another page on the calendar. There is so much potential in a new month. I am setting a goal for myself for May.

I am going to Practice Kindness - do or say something kind every day. This isn’t an easy thing for me; I know that it’s something I can improve on.

I actually started on Monday without realizing it. On Monday my husband and I volunteered at a trail run. We were assigned different locations along the route to point runners in the right direction. This particular trail has runners crisscrossing each other so it’s important to keep everyone going where they are supposed to.

It was unseasonably cold Monday, which is fine for the runners, but not so fine for those of us standing around. But volunteering is giving of oneself, and that is kindness. We got to cheer and encourage the runners. We felt good afterwards.

On Tuesday, my daughter and I went to HIIT with our favorite instructor Erin. I complimented a woman in the class on her new hairstyle. Too bad she had to ruin it sweating! Again, the compliment was genuine - she felt good, I felt good - it was win win.

Something that I noticed this week that was anti-kindness: I was reading my fashion blogs, even though I dislike the consumerism, as I wrote about in this post about spring fashion. There is a fashion blogger I enjoy reading because hers is more of a lifestyle blog. She has written honestly about struggling with anxiety, postpartum depression, and even how she wants a nose job but can’t because of her nasal polyps. She puts herself out there.

She had a post titled “Affordable Fashion” and she styled a skirt, top and shoes from Walmart. She stated up front that this was a sponsored post (Walmart pays her). Well, she got a ton of negative feedback for supporting Walmart. I thought she was pretty courageous by leaving those comments up, as bloggers can moderate and delete comments.

I don’t want to get into any controversy about Walmart, but I felt like the comments were so mean and so hurtful. If you don’t like that outfit or don’t shop at Walmart because of how they treat their employees, or because the clothing is made overseas, so be it. But is it necessary to attack the blogger personally? Just stop reading her blog if her values don’t align with yours.

Anyway, this made me even more conscientious of how our words can hurt.

My point is that I am going to be aware of what I say. Down with the negative and up with the kindness.

Let’s make May the month of kindness