My friends Meg and Nickelle have been great sources of
inspiration for me. I am pretty sure that I would
not have begun this blog without their examples as inspiration, which encouraged me,
too. Please check out their blogs
at: www.megnocero.wordpress.com and
www.nickellecrowley.wordpress.com.
Encouragement is a powerful way to be kind. I have certainly been the recipient of many
kindnesses manifested as encouragement along my various journeys. Just a couple of days ago, another friend who
constantly inspires and encourages me wrote me a thoughtful e-mail: "Don't let anyone discourage what you have planned. REMEMBER... He may be sending you out to change someone's life around!" How is that for a gift of kindness? (Thank you, Aurora.)
On Saturday night at the event I mentioned in a prior post, I
heard a young man, still a teenager, talk about his journey crossing the
U.S.-Mexico border as a child of 12. As
I listened, I was amazed at his courage not only for what he had endured years
before, but also for speaking to a room full of people about something that was
so difficult. After he spoke, I thanked
him for sharing his story. He said that
he didn't think that he had done a good job speaking... the same thing most of us think
when we have that common thread of insecurity.
When we said our goodbyes, I looked him in the eye and told him again
that he had done a great job. A small
kindness, but the type of encouragement that has frequently helped me.
A few days earlier, after a birthday lunch with a
group of girlfriends, one of them, a very successful professional in her late 40s, asked me, "Do you know who my best
friend is?" I had a couple of guesses at the ready, but before I said
anything, she said: "My mother."
I was surprised and asked her why.
She said that her mother always supports her and shared
an example of her mother believing in her when others didn't. We joked that we all need someone who thinks
we are "the bomb." And isn't
that what we are called to do? Certainly
as parents, we are called to love our children, to give them that encouragement
and inspiration as they go on their own journeys.
When I began this adventure in kindness, I thought of kindness
almost as a luxury, a little extra thing to do, optional even. But as I go, I
am realizing how important it is to be kind and how very powerful it can be. Inspiration and encouragement can lift our
spirits and help us soar. Like
sprinkling a little fairy dust on our dreams.
Magic.
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