"… under no circumstances whatsoever should we assume any attitude except that of gentleness and humility." ~ Abdu’l-Baha, The Promulgation of Universal Peace, p. 127.
The world is full of conversations around bringing more equality to our institutions, inviting people of colour into rooms of authority, making equitable and inclusive decisions around what is displayed in the media and so much more. We want to harness the power of unity from the clash of ideas, the amalgamation of our thoughts and ideas. Each of us is endowed with a power to be of use to this world. We have been bestowed by the Creator with a power the likes of which we are often ignorant. How do we tap into this hidden and obscured potential that resides within all of us? One of the ways that we may do this is through gentleness. Our lives could do with a large dose of being gentle to one another and to ourselves. We get sucked into the incessant criticism that seems to be a feature of the ways in which we interact with one another and ourselves. In an arena of competition, criticism is one of its most used tools. But it serves only to diminish the potential of who we can collectively become. There is so much to be critical of in our society from the institutions that purport to serve us, to the places of our work, our friends, our neighbours and our families. What this criticism does is add to the hurt in our hearts instead of building up our potential. We need to find ways to build up our potential because in it lies the secret to building a better world. Through an attitude of tenderness and love toward people and the world around us, we get to view some of this potential. It may be that in altering our behaviour toward one another we will see our talents and gifts more visibly and encourage them to surface. We need to become more aware of how we harm each other, often unintentionally with our words or our actions. Where historically that was an outward expression of egregious physical violence toward one another those sentiments have now become ensconced in our words. We wield literal swords all day long with our words and the tone with which we express them. It is as if we are stabbing folks all the time. To change our language and the tone of our delivery takes a strength of character that we all have the potential to adopt. It is our belief in this living proof that is required. We have been created to love one another and the more that we accept that as our nature, the easier it is to bring it about on a daily basis. As we construct these spaces to interact with more and more people from diverse spheres of life, we need gentleness to really hear and see one another, to open our minds to new thoughts and opinions, to see our common humanity. We need to find a way to let go of our tendencies of jealousy, insecurity and worry in forgiving and being kind to ourselves. For it is futile to wish to behave differently with others when we treat ourselves so harshly. When we can accept that there is enough space in this world for all of us to flourish, and that reaching our own goals is tied to the success of those around us, we can approach things with more gentleness.
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