Heroes Not Zombies

There’s something very delicate about this little petal. Delicate, soft, precious, beautiful.

When I see something as delicate as this I feel kindness stirring in my heart. I feel moved to care for it, to be careful with it.

We talk about a softening of the heart don’t we? And when the heart softens, the eyes soften too. When we see that softening we see kindness, gentleness and care.

I often think this is a fundamental requirement in health care. If you can’t soften your heart and your eyes then you probably shouldn’t be a nurse or a doctor.

But the need for kindness and gentleness goes way beyond health care. It’s a fundamental requirement in teachers too.

And, actually, I think it’s a fundamental requirement in living. The world becomes a better place through soft eyes. The world becomes a better place when we meet with soft hearts, defaulting to treat each other with kindness and gentleness.

I know. There’s a lot of cruelty and hatred in the world, but there’s lots of kindness too. I think that together we create the conditions and environments which enable and nurture the main emotions we feel.

Let’s create and feed the conditions which enable and nurture kindness and gentleness.

That’s something we can all do. That’s living by the heart.