Carrie Baker – The Growth Collective

Be a light to those

Who’ve lost their way

Let love and kindness

Lead them on

To brighter places

And better days

– Carrie Baker

I wrote this short poem while I was getting ready for my day, as I was thinking about a recent ‘about me’ blog post I wrote (you can read that here ). I got to thinking about how we can choose to either tear others down with words and actions, or pull them up with our words and actions.

Sometimes I like to think about the ‘what if’s’ in life. When I think about my younger self, I wonder what I would do to help Little Carrie, if I could go back in time. What about you? What would you do? Would you give younger you some sage advice about life, or maybe it would be your best pep talk? Perhaps you would just be really kind to that version of you. While we can’t go back and be what our younger selves needed all those years ago, we can be that person for someone else.

There will come a day when an opportunity will present itself, for you take the hand of another (literally or metaphorically), to help lead them and love them out of dark place or a difficult situation. Or maybe you will come across a person who just needs someone to believe in them.

They might be a good friend, a colleague, a neighbour or a stranger you pass on the street. They may need you for while, for a moment, or until they pass through it completely. When that time comes, don’t worry about what to do.

All you need is love (like The Beatles song).

Let love guide you. There are so many small ways we can love someone through a difficult time, or even a hard day with small acts of kindness. If it’s a stranger, these can be encouraging words, a smile, a thank you, being considerate, or giving them a thoughtful compliment.

For someone you know, you can try sending a text or voice message to let them know you are thinking of them. You can invite them over for dinner, call them, send a card or flowers, buy their favourite chocolate or take them for a walk. Sometimes you just need to listen and let them talk until the words run out, and all that heaviness has been released.

Perhaps at some point in your life you needed someone to come alongside you, but no one was there for you. You can choose to be the person you needed back then, for someone else.

When we scatter those moments of love and kindness out there in the world they come back to us, it’s a biblical principle. You’ve heard it said before; we reap what we sow.

– Carrie Baker

Kindness is no small thing.

We can be really good at talking ourselves out of things. When that thought pops into our mind to do or say something kind to a stranger, we say things to ourselves like ‘I’ll just look silly’ or ‘they will think I’m being weird’. Or maybe it’s that we don’t believe in ourselves enough, to think that anything we do could make a difference for someone else. Also remember this; It isn’t about you.

I can I tell you something? I have never regretted stepping out of my comfort zone to be kind to someone. Have I occasionally made a fool of myself? Yes! But the great news is that I didn’t die and it made me a little more humble (which is never a bad thing!).

When someone has been kind to me, it made me feel seen and loved and made my day. Wouldn’t it be a wonderful thing to know that you made someone feel like that? You have the opportunity to turn someone’s day around at the very least, but you will never know how far reaching that thing you did for someone else, can be. Never underestimate the big impact of a small kindness.

You have the capacity to show up, to love and be kinder than you know.

When we show up for those in our world who are going through tough times, we can be an encouraging voice and the hand that helps lead them through. The time you give a struggling friend will be the best investment of yourself you can make. You make a big difference just in the small ways you show up for them.

When we show love by doing something kind for another person, the world around us becomes a little brighter, a little better.

Kindness is a mighty force we don’t always understand the power of, and we often don’t see the ongoing ripples that come after just one small act.

Kindness is a weapon that banishes the darkness.

How will you choose to use it today?