Kindness

You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.

If there is one advantage to growing older it is that one tends to soften their perspective of the world as well as their expectations of others around them. We lose so many people in our lives without ever telling them how much they meant to us or worse still, we let that person slip from this world with angry words standing between two people and never resolved.

I read a long time ago to be kind for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle. To me there have never been any truer words. If a person lashes out at you it is usually because they have put up a wall of anger to try to insulate themself against the pain or hurt they may be suffering.

We tend to measure people against a yard stick we think they must measure up to. Judging people on your own expectations of them is wrong and will never gain you any peace in this lifetime. Some people are very content in acquiring the fancy automobiles, the big house with the big tax bill, and all of the worldly possessions they can acquire while others are also very content with a simple lifestyle. But just because one does not desire the other doesn't make either one right or wrong.

It was seeking out the worse in people that finally burned me out on journalism. As you all know, it is the bad news that sells newspapers and gets the ratings on television. But as Charles Kuralt once said: "The everyday kindness of the back roads more than makes up for the acts of greed in the headlines."

Just because someone is marching to the beat of a different drum, don't criticize or beat up the drummer because it isn't in tune with what you want to hear or live.

Sometimes that one act of a kind word is the only chance you will have to show someone what your total worth is. All of this bickering, back stabbing, finger pointing that goes on in this world today is going to be washed away one day, and if that is the only thing someone remembers about you, then it is your loss.

When I stopped expecting people to change to what my expectations of them should be and just started accepting them for who they were, I began to find more of a feeling of contentment in my life. If you don't like someone or the way they live or cannot accept the things about them you do not like, then walk away. But first look at yourself, examine what you may need to change about yourself in order to like the other man better.