01/06/2026
A Practice of Gentleness
May we practice being gentle
with ourselves and with others.
Gentleness does not mean weakness;
it is a quiet strength
that chooses care over urgency,
listening over fixing,
presence over performance.
In being gentle with ourselves,
we allow grief its uneven rhythms,
forgive the days when courage feels out of reach,
and rest without needing to earn it.
It is to speak inwardly
with the same patience we reserve
for those we love most,
recognizing that survival alone
has required an astonishing amount of effort.
To be gentle with others
is to remember that everyone is carrying something;
that sharp words often guard tender places;
that silence can be a form of exhaustion,
not indifference.
Gentleness asks us to soften our judgments,
to make room for compassion
before jumping to foregone conclusions or assumptions.
And perhaps gentleness is most radical
when it expands outward,
when it becomes a shared atmosphere
rather than a private virtue;
when we choose kinder conversations
and hands extended outward.
In practicing gentleness,
we create spaces
where pain does not have to hide.
May we practice often.
May we learn that gentleness
is not something we reach once we are whole,
but something that helps
make wholeness possible at all.
~ 'A Practice of Gentleness' by Spirit of a Hippie
✍️ Mary Anne Byrne
~ Art by Olamik
