welcome

I received an email yesterday, from a lovely woman I went to school with. We shared classes but we didn’t stay in touch and I certainly wasn’t expecting to hear from her.

But there it was: an email. Full of kindess and warmth and wisdom.

Sometimes when I think about reaching out to someone or doing something out of the ordinary for somebody else, I carry through. But sometimes my inner voice gets all protective: they won’t remember who you are; they’ll think you’re freaky, it will make things awkward. And I find myself holding back.

An inner critic’s efforts to shield from perceived threats can be helpful but sometimes, that internal voice gets its assessment of the landscape wildly wrong.

Yesterday I was reminded of something almost sort of embarrassingly obvious, really: kindness is always welcome.