There’s something powerful about choosing to keep a soft heart in a world that sometimes feels determined to make you tougher than you want to be. Life will throw its share of shadows at you—moments that shake your trust, people who don’t show up the way you hoped, seasons that test more than you ever signed up for. And yet, the real strength isn’t in becoming cold or distant. It’s in deciding, every single time, that your heart is still worth protecting… not by hardening it, but by keeping it open.
It’s strange how the world teaches us that softness is vulnerability, but if you’ve ever walked through something heavy and still managed to stay kind, you know that’s not true. Patience doesn’t mean you’re naïve. Trust doesn’t mean you’re blind. Carrying a good heart through the ups and downs is a choice—a quiet, stubborn kind of courage that doesn’t get enough credit.
Because the truth is, darkness is loud. Hurt is loud. Disappointment is loud. And it’s easy to let those echoes convince you to match their tone. It’s easy to let one bad moment rewrite the way you show up in every other moment. It’s easy to let someone else’s bitterness find a home in you. But that’s not who you are. And deep down, you know it.
The real challenge is staying rooted in who you want to be, even when the world gives you reasons to be someone else. It’s remembering that your heart, as it is—gentle, patient, trusting—is not a weakness to fix but a gift to guard. Yes, people will misunderstand it. Some will take it for granted. Some will confuse your kindness for something they can misuse. But you don’t have to let their shadows dim your light.
You’re allowed to step back. You’re allowed to protect your peace. You’re allowed to walk away from anything that repeatedly hurts you. But you don’t have to become hardened to do it. You don’t have to mirror the darkness you’ve experienced. Rising above isn’t about being perfect—it’s about not letting the wrong things change the right parts of you.
Maybe the world doesn’t need more hardened hearts. Maybe it needs more people who still believe in goodness, even after everything that tried to convince them otherwise. People who still choose patience when frustration would be easier. People who still choose trust when disappointment would be simpler. People who still choose love in a world that often forgets how to show it.
So keep your heart good. Not because life is always fair, but because you know who you are. Because you know that softness is strength. Because you know that staying true to yourself matters more than matching anyone else’s darkness.
And because, even on the days you feel bruised or let down or tired of being the one who keeps trying, that good heart of yours is still your greatest gift—and it’s worth holding onto.
Kenrick Vaz 