The Value of CONSIDERATION

CHRISTINE PRISLAND focuses on those small acts of kindness and cooperation that can bring happiness and meaning to every day. She challenges us to explore consideration as a prerequisite to kindness, and to look at our level of thoughtfulness and sensitivity in our daily interactions with others.

- CHRISTINE PRISLAND

I bought a highly recommended book the other day called #KindnessMatters, and even before I opened the first page, I started thinking about kindness. It is a big topic these days, and rightly so, as we try to navigate a different way of living. Sometimes we grimly hold on to how we lived prior to March 2020; sometimes we embrace different ways and locations of working, and different ways of relating to our loved ones. Sometimes we try to understand others with opposing views on vaccination, isolation, complying with the governments’ attempts to lessen the impact of Covid. In these times, our lives have changed.

How does kindness fit into this new beginning, as it is often called? Is being considerate of others a cultural thing? And can we practice kindness if we don’t experience it in our lives and culture? I’ve traveled a lot, and encountered kindness everywhere, so I think it is individual. It comes from within, but how it manifests can be influenced by tradition and culture, upbringing and environment.

Consideration for others is at the base of being kind. Can we be kind without feelings of thoughtfulness and sensitivity? Or perhaps they go side by side. I don’t really know, and does it matter?