There are so many ways this precious gift can be taken. On a personal scale you could have a health issue – I’ve had multiple people I care about suffer heart attacks and strokes, including my father. I had a gnarly car accident a couple of years ago that with just a small change in circumstances could have killed me. I had so many close calls riding my motorcycle that almost did kill me I eventually gave up riding. I loved riding and I miss it, but the juice wasn’t worth the squeeze anymore.

On a humanity scale we could be wiped out by AI, war, nuclear weapons or climate change. On a planetary scale a super volcano, asteroid, black hole or advanced alien race could end it all. Astronauts looking down on earth often talk in wonder about the thin line that is all that separates our atmosphere from the void.

I say all that not to add to your existential dread that keeps you up at night – I have enough of my own and wouldn’t wish it on anyone. Instead my point is that keeping all that can go wrong in mind helps remind us how precious life, family, and fellow humans are. It can make us appreciate it more. To be better to each other.

It is very easy to judge people as you can directly feel or perceive pain, injustice or unfairness. When someone makes you feel that way it’s easy, and natural, to judge them for it. Scapegoats are useful, it’s why they are so prevalent. Being able to blame someone else feels good.

It’s much harder to be kind. To have to show grace. To see that they might be hurting and remember that “hurt people hurt people”. It’s exhausting to be good, to choose kindness, when anger can be invigorating. It’s a harder path to choose, full of friction, in a world built around interactions being frictionless as a feature.

But how do we really want to be remembered by those we care about most? Which wolf do we want to feed inside us? What actually sustains our souls more? 

Kindness. Grace. Empathy. Compassion. Love.

The strongest people I know are the most empathetic. They offer grace when someone is not showing their best side. Compassion when someone is struggling. Choose kindness over the easier options. They love the best in people, not just those they care about the most but nearly all the humans they meet. They believe in humanity and want it to succeed and prosper because they believe it has inherent value.

What kind of world do we want when we’re at our lowest? I don’t know what lies beyond the veil nor whether the Universe has karma. But I do know energy can neither be created nor destroyed. Maybe karma is really just that universal well of energy, fed by us all. What do we want to feed it more, knowing someday we may need to draw from that well?

I choose kindness and sometimes I fall short. Then I try and remember to be kind to myself and do better next time. 

I choose kindness because that’s what I want the world to show those I care about the most when I can’t be there for them. 

Lead with kindness. Be remembered for being kind. Try to be kind to yourself, so that you can be kind to others.

Choose kindness.