Dooley Noted: 7/24/2017
The kindest woman I have ever met in this life is my Aunt Betty, the wife of my mother’s brother, Bob.
Aunt Betty is the kind of woman who can smile through her eyes. She hugs you and doesn’t let go right away, because she needs you to know just how much you are loved.
But I never saw the depths of her attempts at kindness until I saw her lose her cool.
It was Easter Sunday, and I was 12.
She got very upset with my uncle, and she argued with him. I had only experienced her sweetness, and had never before seen her get angry.
In my naïveté, I had assumed she didn’t experience anger.
So she changed my life that Easter.
In that moment, I knew that every attempt at kindness for Aunt Betty was a conscious attempt.
She wasn’t magically a sweet person.
She worked at it.
She choose kindness much more than she chose anger expressed at others.
And she is still that woman today.
In the 38 years I have known her, she showed me more kindness than any person I’ve ever met.
Throughout chiropractic school, she sent me articles on fitness and health. She wanted to encourage me.
Before the times of social media, she always went out of her way to let me know she was thinking of me.
And in my loneliest of times, she doesn’t even know that she gave me hope with her acts of kindness of notes and magazine clippings of inspiring people.
I used to have a tendency toward losing my cool. I’m fiery and used to be quick to be unkind.
But Aunt Betty showed me early on that it was okay to be angry. It’s a natural emotion that everyone experiences.
It’s not always natural to choose kindness – but if you work at it, kindness can become more natural.
I hope everyone has an Aunt Betty to look up to in life.
I’m working on being that person for other people.
I hope we can all be inspired by the moments when we choose kindness.
We just may minimize the times we lose our cool – and meanwhile, inspire others through that kindness.
As always, it’s your call.
– Dr. Kathy Dooley