A New Year brings you hope and inspiration to change not only yourself but also the whole world. You look upon the world for a short while with innocent, newborn eyes, and everything seems for a second or two to be possible.

Change and history is sometimes made by small revolutions. People deciding to take matters into their own hands, and 2009 may also be the year when Kindness becomes permitted. Let 2009 be the year when you let kindness into your life. Permit yourself to be kind, and feel proud. Kindness is sadly not something that is highly regarded in society.

William Wordsworth wrote that, “The little unremembered acts of kindness and love are the best parts of a person”s life’. In today’s world kindness is regarded as not normal, even something that is not in tune with our nature. Scientific evidence of our selfish nature is constantly appearing in newspapers. Humans are born selfish and kindness is something that has to be taught and learned.

Kindness is regarded as a weakness and only really accepted between parents and children. Kind people are looked upon as losers; they are so weak that they cannot be anything else. In world where status is highly valued, and winners are glorified it is difficult to say what you achieve by being kind. Perhaps that is the beauty of kindness: you achieve nothing except the wonderful satisfaction of knowing that you have been kind. Kindness is my way.

Let us finish with some words by Amelia Earhart.

No kind action ever stops with itself. One kind action leads to another. Good example is followed. A single act of kindness throws out roots in all directions, and the roots spring up and make new trees. The greatest work that kindness does to others is that it makes them kind themselves.