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Personal Musings

William Wordsworth once said that the best portion of a good man’s life is his little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and love.

In everything, kindness.

KINDNESS IS EVERYTHING, and in everything, kindness. If you can’t be kind, practice silence. This practice echoes what we all were taught in childhood: if you don’t have anything nice to say then don’t say anything at all.

It’s simple and to the point, yet cast aside all too often.

Our words can be:
uplifting,
encouraging,
calm and kind.

Or they can be:
discouraging,
filled with spite,
or intentionally hurtful.

We trust our perceptions too much. We create triangle conversations behind closed doors, which pits two against one. For what reason: to build ourselves up while tearing another down? To prove a point? To show our worth or embellish our status in comparison to another?

Make a conscious decision to choose kindness in everything you do, even when it’s almost unbearable.

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By Jeffrey Pillow

Jeffrey Pillow is an American short story writer, memoirist, and poet. He is the author of The Lady Next Door. His writing has been published in Urge Magazine, The Nervous Breakdown, 16 Blocks, USA Today, Sports Illustrated, TheBody.com, New York Times, Washington Post, and Richmond Times-Dispatch.

He grew up in the small town of Phenix, Virginia, population: 200, and now lives in Charlottesville with his wife, two kids, and a dog named Mozzarella Cheese. He is a graduate of the University of Virginia where he was a Rainey Scholar. This is his blog.

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