Kindness

In 2023, Kindness changed the antidepressant she had been taking for 17 years - a daunting experience that coincided with discovering Naomi Shihab Nye’s 'Kindness'. The piece resonated deeply, prompting reflections on her own journey with anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder, and the many acts of grace, time, and love shown to her along the way. 

These experiences highlighted both the challenge and necessity of learning to extend kindness to herself - a practice of unlearning self-diminishment and building courage and curiosity. Inspired, she created a poem titled 'Kindness', alongside a digital collage made from her photographs and drawings. She offers a gentle reminder to meet ourselves where we are and extend compassion inward.

life becomes a test 
and then almost too suddenly not one 
and I wake up one day 
and all that matters are the people who have shown me kindness 
open and unreserved 
and turned up for me when I had not much left to give