If we are kind and warm, we will tend to expect others to be kind and warm. We will approach others with an optimistic attitude. If met with aggression we are less likely to respond with aggression, because this is not the stance from which we began. Greeting people in a kindly way offers them the opportunity to respond in a kindly way. If they do not, this does not need to unseat our kindness. We can simply remain kind. If aggression does upset our kindness so that we respond defensively, then we were ‘wearing’ kindness as an artificial definition, rather than as the nature of our being in the present moment. If the wearing of kindness is a good-hearted attempt to become a compassionate person developing awareness, then we can simply acknowledge that we lost it that time, let it go, and re-dress ourselves in kindness. If we do this often enough over a long period of time, eventually our ‘cloak’ of kindness becomes the quintessence of our being.
