A Kind Summer
Hello there, and a warm welcome to you all,
Hooray for summer! This is the time of year when it’s easier to connect with others. Dog walks are more often enjoyed in good weather, so we don’t have hoods up and raincoats fastened which makes it easier to engage other dog walkers in friendly conversation. Lots of people are out and about, which allows the chance to catch up with people we may not often see otherwise. And with the longer periods of daylight there’s time after work to meet up with friends—and the light gives us endorphins, so we feel more energised to do so. It seems the perfect time of year, therefore, for us to write about something both Caroline and I value deeply, and that is kindness.
And just what do we mean by ‘kindness’? Of course we recognise when it happens, but sometimes such common words become elusive when we try to define them. I think psychologist and Radio 4 presenter Claudia Hammond, in her excellent book The Keys to Kindness, does a great job of defining kindness. She describes it as ‘something done with the intention of benefitting someone else’.
To be accurate with regard to intention, we need to be empathetic—that is, to consider life from the viewpoint of another to try to understand their feelings. That’s what I’ll be writing about in my first post—how empathy develops, and how we can go about improving our ability to be empathetic. In my second offering, I’ll explain how and why kindness benefits not only the recipient, but the giver as well.
Caroline will explain why kindness is the watchword when training your dog, and why a kindly approach works better than other ways. She’ll also address how it’s important to be kind to yourself when we’re in a world that can be so easy to feel judged as a dog parent.
Until our next post, why not take a moment at the end of each to reflect on kindness. What have you done to benefit someone else that day? And who has shown you a kindness and how?
OK, until next time, enjoy this lovely month,
Linda and Caroline