This is Peanut Butter Brickle. Kindness. Digby calls it a raft to others. He said in the storms of life, sometimes just one word of kindness can help someone. But what if you are the one you need to be kind to?

I love myself. That’s obvious, because who wouldn’t? But I also know my shortcomings.

I also know what gets me down.

I also know more than anyone else the mistakes I have made. And it makes me so mad sometimes that I tell myself off in my head with very mean barks.

Yesterday, I couldn’t finish a hike like I wanted to because it was so hot. I couldn’t get up the stairs so easy because of my balance. And all of this made me very anxious. All of this made me not like myself. At all.Truth is, I didn’t feel so young anymore.

But Girl Person told me that I was being mean to myself. She said she does it too. And so does Boy Person. She said that I had to learn to be kinder to me.

We may lose our temper with others sometimes. And we apologize. But do we apologize to ourselves when our thoughts are unkind? Do we apologize to ourselves when we are too hard on ourselves?

Beating someone else down with words will take a toll over time.

And it’s no different with the way we talk to ourselves. We have control over what we say to others. And we do have control over what we say to ourselves. Take a minute today to be kinder to you. So that you can be kinder to others.

–Peanut Butter Brickle