Sometimes Kindness Isn’t An Option, And That’s Okay

Cruelty cannot always be resolved with sensitivity and kindness. Sometimes kindness only feeds delusion. How can you wake up to your own bullshit if everyone around you is always fluffing the pillows of your comfort zone? You can’t. You will never grow. Sometimes you need that one person who chooses truth over kindness to make you briefly uncomfortable enough to reevaluate yourself, as well as your conception of the reality around you. Sometimes the brief absence of someone else’s kindness is the catalyst behind your own personal growth.

We try really hard to choose kindness, but the truth can’t always be contorted into something sweet. No matter how hard we may try to gently construct our words or measure our actions toward others, we are not magicians. We can’t always sugarcoat the fact that someone is an asshole. Sometimes, all we can do is reveal them to themselves.

Sometimes, when illusions falter and the smoke has cleared, we are left with no choice but to be that mirror. It is unfortunate when they don’t like the reality that they see reflected back to them on the crystal clear surface of the truth. Like a mirror, if they try to break us, all we can do is cut deeper.

If you ever find yourself in a position where kindness just doesn’t feel possible, try not to beat yourself up too much about it. We all have moments where we just desperately need to take the low road in order to avoid driving ourselves off the edge of a cliff. Sometimes those brief moments where we slip up and are less kind than we usually try to be turn out to be tiny little blessings in disguise. Sometimes, the moments we are least proud of end up saving other people by revealing them to themselves.