Mahatma Gandhi
I like to go to the gym. I hit the gym six days a week. I enjoy exercising. I also enjoy the friendships I’ve made. Over the past three weeks one of my friends wasn’t showing up. At first I thought he was on vacation. When his absence went into three weeks I wondered if something was wrong. i decided to text him and ask how he was doing. He responded immediately. He was grateful I was checking in on him and said he life was very busy and he would return soon. I was happy he was okay. I think he was happy that someone checked in on him. Is there someone in your life you haven’t seen in a while? Think about checking in on them. All you need to do is text or email.
I went to the supermarket, in south Texas it’s HEB, yesterday. I met a neighbor and we parked our baskets out of the way and started chatting. Half way up the aisle where we were standing a bag of chips fell off the shelve. I made a mental note to pick it up if it was still on the floor when we finished chatting. I wasn’t counting, but I estimate at least 20 people walked by the chips including workers. Then, one woman cane along, stopped, picked up the chips and placed them back on the shelve and continued on her way. She restored my faith. She was awake. When I see people do something nice, kind, or loving, it gives me an emotional boost and reinforces my notion, that doing something nice, kind, and loving for others is also my daily job.
I haven’t a single person who has told me, “When I wake up I make a decision to not be happy. Unhappiness is my goal.” We all want to be happy, some seem to have higher levels of happiness than others. What’s the difference? According to an article on Inc.com, there are five ways to make ourselves happier: exercise, practicing kindness, being grateful, surrounding ourselves with people we love, and letting ourselves be happy. Happiness is within our grasp. Happy people grasp know where to look
Make the most of the moment. One never knows what tomorrow will bring. Filling the moment with love and kindness leaves a trail for others to follow. You’ll never lead them down a wrong path. Ignore the noise, ignore what doesn’t contribute to love and kindness. Tomorrow will work out, you’re building a strong foundation.
Viktor Frankl in Man’s Search for Meaning recalled as he marched with other oppressed and brutalized prisoners in the concentration camp, ‘A thought transfixed me, for the first time in my life I saw the truth as it is set into song by so many pets, proclaimed as the final wisdom by so many thinkers. The truth – that love is the ultimate an the highest goal to which man can aspire. Then I grasped the meaning of the greatest secret that human poetry and human thought and belief have to impart: The salvation of man is through love and in love (pps. 48-49).
If you’ve been loved unconditionally you know you feel safe, you know you feel accepted as you are, blemishes and all, there’s nothing else you want to do except return the love in kind without thought to one’s self. When we lose that love, we recognize a deep void that only love can fill. Love, love, and love some more.
