one little word

Really want to make a difference?  Make sure this word is part of your vocabulary:  thanks.  It's pretty simple - when someone does something for you, however big or small, say thanks!  When people say it to me, it really makes my day.

 

During the course of the week, I do various volunteer efforts, and I really enjoy giving of my time and hopefully helping the life of other people.  I don't have any great expectations of something coming my way as a result of what I do, but you know what?  I get something often - a thank you!

 

Wow!  It's really hard to describe, but when someone indicates that they appreciate what you just said or what you just did, that is a pretty special feeling.  I'm going to try to be more conscious of saying it myself. 

Expand your horizons!

Expanding our horizons is one fairly easy way to change the world. When we increase the range of things that we know about or have experienced, we open up so many new possibilities. Is trying something new every day a pretty tall order? Consider doing it every week with at least one bigger thing every month.

Now to make this work, it might help to write some things down on your calendar. Certainly you can leave some events to chance, but planning ahead will give you a much better chance of success. Begin with events that take place in or near your community such as concerts or parades or fairs. How may of them have you always said "someday I should do that"? Well, why not make the next event your someday?

 

It's amazing how rewarding it is to broaden your horizons!  You don't have to limit yourself to scheduled events too.  Go out and try new things like tutoring a student, serving food to the homeless, answering phones at your favorite non-profit, or maybe some daredevil idea like bungee jumping or skydiving.  Go on a retreat for a weekend, either with a group, or by yourself.  There are so many possibilities!  Oh and if you really want to benefit, share your experiences as well!

Just a little background

If you are stumbling upon this blog for the first time today, welcome!  Glad you found us and hope you will check out some of the previous entries.  What I write about here is making a difference in the world - ways to do it, the many ways of giving back and the folks who are leading the way and already making a difference.  I am fortunate to receive an occasional email and every now and then someone even posts a comment at the end of these daily entries.  I sure don't have all the answers, so I am always grateful for the feedback!

I might from time to time reference my family or my own life by way of introducing the subject, but I don't spend much time talking about myself because, as the title says, It's NOT about me.  That's important to me too.  I don't want the messenger to ever end up taking the place of the message.

It's hard to believe I started this seventeen years ago!  Eight years ago I began another blog about kindness.  My fingers do a lot of typing.  I don't think though that I will ever run out of things to say.

Giving back to our communities - sharing the love - making a difference in our world - that is so important and that is why, several years ago, I began writing this.  It is my hope that it occasionally inspires someone and that just maybe another person will get out and do some great thing after having read this.  Please feel free to tell folks about this and please feel free to comment and to send me messages!  We ALL are in this!

do not crumple, scar, or mess up

Here's a story you may have heard before. It's about a teacher who was telling her class about bullying and gave them an exercise to perform. She had the children take a piece of paper and told them to crumple it up, stamp on it and really mess it up, but not to rip it. Then she had them unfold the paper, smooth it out and look at how scarred and dirty it was. She then told them to tell it they’re sorry.

Sometimes a child who is bullied will later receive apologies, but the damage is done. In this exercise, even though they said they were sorry and tried to fix the paper, she pointed out all the scars they left behind. And that those scars will never go away no matter how hard they tried to fix it. That is what happens when a child bullies another child - they may say they’re sorry, but the scars are there forever.

Hardly a day goes by when I don't see something about bullying. The It Gets Better Project has done some amazing videos aimed particularly at lgbtq youth. Let me be clear though. While gay kids are so often the targets of bullies, ALL bullying is bad. We need to get rid of it ALL.

The kids in that classroom learned an important lesson. The looks on the faces of the children told their teacher that the message had indeed hit home. I hope this hits home with all of you too!  Last week I wrote each day here about bullying, because it is important.  WE can make a difference. Bullying must STOP!

Never worry about numbers

When you care about other people - when you want to change the world and make this a better place, we so often think in terms of numbers.  We want to make it better for everyone.  Suddenly though we feel overwhelmed and so we stop.  We wanted to do good but because we felt we wouldn't make "enough" of a difference, we ended up doing nothing at all.

I can relate to this.  I always think big and urge others to do so as well, but numbers really are not all that important.  What we need to do is to get involved and to stick with it!  Step by step - one by one, our grassroots efforts really do make a difference.

Mother Teresa of Calcutta, now Saint Teresa, proved this during her lifetime.  She spoke of it too.  "Never worry about numbers," she said.  "Help one person at a time and always start with the person nearest you."

Rule to live by

Some people say they have a code of ethics or a rule to live by. The whole "giving back" idea that I write about here every day, I think is a form of this code.  Many refer to it as the Golden Rule.

 

It really is quite basic: we should treat others as we would like others to treat us. Not hard to understand, right? It is generally stated as "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

 

There is a "two-way" relationship between us and the others in our world and that relationship involves both sides equally. None of us likes to have too many regulations, but we all should have some kind of positive rule to live by. This is just basic human values.

 

I can remember when people used to quote this rule.  I can remember when it was common for people to actually live by it too. We can go back to that again. It is possible.

Getting rid of prejudice

"Prejudice and contempt, cloaked in the pretense of religious or political conviction are no different. These forces have nearly destroyed our nation in the past. They plague us still. They fuel the fanaticism of terror. And they torment the lives of millions in fractured nations all around the world."  President Bill Clinton spoke those words in his second Inaugural Address back in January, 1997.

Mr. Clinton went on to say "These obsessions cripple both those who hate and, of course, those who are hated, robbing both of what they might become. We cannot, we will not, succumb to the dark impulses that lurk in the far regions of the soul everywhere. We shall overcome them. And we shall replace them with the generous spirit of a people who feel at home with one another."

It has been twenty-eight years and yet the prejudice and contempt that former President Clinton spoke of are still around.  To me it seems to be getting worse.  He said that we shall overcome them, but when?  Are we working on it at all?  Are we even trying?

What do YOU think?