Cardigans are nice. Autumn sunsets are nice. Portraits of you drawn by your nursery-aged relative are nice (or at least that’s what you tell their parents, whilst trying to work out why you slightly resemble an octopus).
So no, nice is no bad thing.
But to be kind… well, that’s something different entirely. Where niceness can be slightly passive, kindness requires an action. It needs thought, and attention to detail. Kindness is, after all, an act of love.
It’s not easy to be kind, and nor should it be. If it was easy, kindness would be less valuable. The effort is what makes it special.
The beauty of kindness is that being kind feels just as good as receiving kindness. Your heart swells as you watch your sibling open a gift you spent hours picking out. You wait in joyful anticipation until you know your grandma has received the card you sent her ‘just because’. The flowers you sent a friend to brighten her week look just as beautiful on her grateful Instagram post as they would in your own front room.
It’s so easy to feel like life is too busy to find time for kindness. And yet many of us find ourselves with an abundance of time right now, and also a need to maintain our faith in the world. Kindness can do that, if we let it. Maybe kindness can be the pandemic that prevails.
Be kind. To yourselves and to others. It is the best thing we can do, especially now.
Harriet Grace has worked in events all her working life and has been running Accept Management since 2012. Major clients include the Grand National and Epsom Derby and she has additionally worked across events including the 2012 London Olympics, the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games, British Summer Time at Hyde Park and many more.
When she’s not working, you’ll find her walking her boxer dog, Tia, playing netball or chilling out with a box set.
