Stories of Kindness from Around the World

The Origin of the Word "Kind"


--by timcollardey, posted Apr 20, 2009
Have you ever wondered why we make such a big deal about living kindly?  For a lot of us it’s just innate, feels like the right thing to do.  But, that little voice in my head warned me one night, “Don’t take kindness for granted—find out why!”  So I did, and made an exciting discovery in the process.

What prompted me to make this quest for kindness was realizing in a special moment of wonder where I was standing—upon parched earth that has become the condition called drought where I live in Colorado.  I looked up and felt dwarfed by the titanic spruces and pines and aspens that surround my house.  They didn’t seem the least bit phased by the fact that a spark or bolt of lightning could sentence their lives to a furious death.

I thought about how unkind and cruel nature can be.  Then I wondered, is it nature that’s so unkind or just I who doesn’t really understand?  It occurred to me that nature isn’t punishing us or seeking retribution for how we have mistreated the environment, but is simply out of balance from all we have taken and not given back.  It’s karmic.

While these thoughts of nature swirled in my head, I decided to revisit the one book that holds so many truths for me—the dictionary.  Seems odd, doesn’t it?  The dictionary??  You see, I learned a long time ago that every word, like people, has a story.  Every word started somewhere in time for reasons that are often buried in the dust of history unrecalled.

So there it was, like discovering an ancestor I never realized before that I was related to.  The word “kind” is one of the oldest in the English language, going back some time before the year 900.  It originally meant “nature.”  Kind = nature!  It was like peeling back my skull and exposing my brain to the sun.  Never before had I so clearly seen that kindness is natural, of nature.

When we show kindness, especially in the face of cruelty, we are wielding the greatest power in the universe—our groundedness in nature.  Being kind to unkind others does two things: it keeps us grounded in our essence and it serves as a reminder to the unkind to return to theirs.  It is unnatural to show cruelty and meanness.  It causes drought within human hearts and our world.

The psychologist Blair Justice once wrote, "Letting ourselves feel that sense of wonder that surrounds us every single minute is what elevates our hearts beyond a mechanical pump and turns them into instruments of love and kindness."  He obviously “gets” it.  Return to kindness and replenish your heart.  That is our nature.  (As Paul Harvey so famously quoted, “Now you know the rest of the story.”  Rest in peace, Paul.)
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Readers Comments

Andi Abigail wrote: This is exactly what i was looking for. On a journey to understand and uncover the truth i have found comfort in the word kindness. Being kind is the only way to heal our collective and generational pain. Thank you for this.
Rajni wrote: Beautiful perspective on gives us to do kindness as a default. What others do, good or bad, build their karma. What we do or react builds ours. Help ever hurt never should be a norm in kindness.
malcolm wrote: Did you know 'kind' in german means child :))
Mark Jeffrey Pennington wrote: Mankind/nature give birth beget. After-birth
Hüman= good man begotten
Philip Nankin wrote: All one of our kind and one of a kind.

Many thanks for "kindly" sharing your insight!
Nancy wrote: Fantastic perspective. Now if only all of us would use these words, the world would be a better place.
JalapenoVision wrote: Great article, i am in the midst of collaborating with a psychic to create a deck of oracle cards.
Kindness is one of the ones we will use and i wanted to research the origins of the word itself before i start to draw the image.

Thank you.
Zeinab wrote: I want ti know derivation and history about kindness plz introduce me an authoritative book.
Yvonne wrote: In the very old book called genesis it talks about each animal producing according to its own kind.
And the same with mankind. Made in the same kind as his creator who is totally loving kindness.
Margaret Contrera wrote: This is exactly what we need in post 1994 south africa. If we all get back to "our natures" and remember our differnt cultures which all revolve around that very south african phrase "ubuntu", our heritage and what the original anc stood for and why it was founded in the first place, perhaps present day south africa will have a chance of redemption and survival.

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