I was inspired by Matt’s birthday message on crafting a writing habit. I’ve been doing this for a few days now (as part of bloganuary), and I’m enjoying this. I’m treating this blog like a journal, pouring my mind in here… And then I thought, I’d need a motto like Matt, to follow this year.

This year, I’ve been trusting my instincts more for a change, so I asked that question to myself and got the answer almost immediately.

My motto for 2022 is to be kind – to myself, my loved ones, and to the world around me.

I am not sure how I picked it up, but in my own system of values, I place kindness on the top. I never forget the people who have been kind to me – if I ever meet them again, I’d give them a big hug and probably cry my lungs out in gratitude as well. It matters so much to me – probably because I am where I am today, because a few good people in my life chose to be kind. From Matt himself, who said “I’ll see you around…” in an interview almost six years back (only to give me a life I’d dreamt of), to my own father in law, who trusted a weird guy with crazy dreams with her daughter’s hand…

It always tears me up…

I am the sum total of everything that went before me, of all I have been seen done, of everything done-to-me. I am everyone everything whose being-in-the-world affected was affected by mine. I am anything that happens after I’m gone which would not have happened if I had not come.

Mark Twain

This year, I would like to give back the gift, by being kind. As much as possible. Whenever possible. I am not very sure how I will do it, but I want to kick off by incorporating kindness into everything I do.

I want to start by being kind to myself, because I rarely am. I treat myself so harshly, and I intend to change that by being kind to my own self. And then, I wish to make kindness the guiding light of all that I do this year.

Is it going to be a foolhardy exercise? I don’t know. But I am going to trust my instincts as I follow it. And if there’s one thing that 2022 has taught me, it is that my instincts are always right.

Let’s see how it goes…

I will rest my fingers on the keyboard by sharing this gem of a song from the Mozart of Madras.