Kindness Pays
by Michael Feeley
Some people welcome kindness like sunlight. They expect it, respond to it, feel instant gratitude. The exchange is clean, mutual, life-giving.
Others armor themselves against it. They deflect kindness offered to them. They withhold it from others. When you extend your hand, they turn away—sometimes with rudeness, sometimes with insults, sometimes with calculated indifference and hatred.
Who gets hurt in that moment?
Not you. You’ve already received the benefit of your own kindness. Science confirms what wisdom has always known: generosity triggers the same reward centers in your brain whether it’s accepted or rejected. Your body doesn’t know the difference.
But the person who refuses kindness? They carry double weight. They bear whatever hardness drove them to shield themselves. And they forfeit the chemical grace that comes from both receiving and offering human warmth.
This is why kindness is never wasted. Even if unreturned, it pays you. Even unacknowledged, it lightens your load. Even when met with walls, it keeps your heart supple.
The hard person isn’t stronger for their armor. They are just lonelier inside, smaller, and ashamed of shunning kindness.
You can offer kindness at any time. It’s always a wise choice—not because of what it might change in others, but because of what it preserves in you.
Thanks – Michael (he, him)
Please share this Daily.
This matters too – Human Kindness.
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