cock-a-doodle-do

If you are paying attention to the Lunar Calendar, here comes the Year of the Rooster! Cock-a-doodle-do! May kindness prevail in the year ahead and may we all be wealthy in terms of our happiness and the joy and happiness that we share with others.

still going strong

When I began writing this a few months ago, how many of you expected I would continue each day for more than a week or two?  Being kind is important.  There is so much that can be said.  There is so much that we can do.  Kindness is the great medicine that can make all sorts of things better.  

above all put on love

Saint Paul had a thing or two to say about kindness and compassion. This from the third chapter of his letter to the Colossians: "Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony."

Women's marches around the world

With kind remarks from strangers and with smiles and words of encouragement, millions and millions of people gathered for women's marches in Washington, DC and all around the world. The was a march in little Pacifica, CA and London, Paris, Las Vegas, Park City, Miami, San Francisco and scores of other cities. I'm told there was at least one march in all fifty states as well as the numerous foreign ones, and that all of them were upbeat. Change comes about when people work together for the good, and it sounds to me like yesterday was a marvelous example!

We're still the boss

There's a lot of worry surrounding yesterday's activities in Washington, DC but it is important to remember that we are the same people with the same potential. We didn't just crown a king. We're not bowing down to a dictator. What actually happened yesterday is our new employee started his temporary job. We are still the boss. We can still make change. We can!

to bind up the nation's wounds

"With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations." -President Abraham Lincoln, March 1865

Thank you Mister President

Thinking of Barack Obama as he begins his last full day as President of the United States, perhaps the greatest President of all time. What a kind and caring man he is and with his wife, Michelle, and daughters, Malia and Sasha he has been such a comforting presence at the White House these past eight years. I know he will be missed.  Thank you Mister President.

Wise words from our President

"We, the People, recognize that we have responsibilities as well as rights; that our destinies are bound together; that a freedom which only asks what's in it for me, a freedom without a commitment to others, a freedom without love or charity or duty or patriotism, is unworthy of our founding ideals, and those who died in their defense."   -President Barack Obama

I still have a dream

"I say to you today, my friends, though, even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up, live out the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal'." -Martin Luther King Jr. (from his I Have a Dream" speech delivered during the March on Washington on August 28, 1963)

Yes, we can

"But for now, whether you are young or whether you're young at heart, I do have one final ask of you as your President - the same thing I asked when you took a chance on me eight years ago. I'm asking you to believe. Not in my ability to bring about change - but in yours. I am asking you to hold fast to that faith written into our founding documents; that idea whispered by slaves and abolitionists; that spirit sung by immigrants and homesteaders and those who marched for justice; that creed reaffirmed by those who planted flags from foreign battlefields to the surface of the moon; a creed at the core of every American whose story is not yet written: Yes, we can."  -President Barack Obama in his farewell address last night in Chicago

resolutions

It's a common practice for people to change undesired traits or behaviors and to resolve to continue good practices and perhaps accomplish certain goals or otherwise improve their life at the start of a brand new year. In 2017, I wonder how many are making any sort of resolution. Did you? Have you had success with resolutions in the past? I always resolve to try to be more kind and to encourage the kindness of others. Good luck with whatever you decide and happy New Year to you all!

Rainy Days and Mondays

Forty six years ago, Karen Carpenter was singing "What I've got they used to call the blues. Nothin' is really wrong, Feelin' like I don't belong." Ever had a day like that yourself? That popular song Rainy Days and Mondays could easily describe today, except for one thing: Nothing needs to get us down. Nothing. It's raining where I live, and it is indeed Monday, but I refuse to be depressed about anything. There are bright corners everywhere. Just look for them.

equality and opportunity for all

I cannot understand at all how destroying families through deportation benefits our society in any way. Whatever happened to basic human kindness? Whatever happened to the fundamental American promise of equality and opportunity for all?  How can we think of some people as "illegal"?

Anything is possible

"If your family doesn’t have much money, I want you to remember that in this country, plenty of folks, including me and my husband, we started out with very little," said First Lady Michelle Obama in her farewell speech yesterday. "Though with a lot of hard work and a good education, anything is possible, even becoming President. That’s what the American dream is all about." Mrs Obama also said that being First Lady "has been the greatest honor of my life." It was a very kind, encouraging, and emotional speech.

no room for any kind of prejudice

"There’s no space, there's no room for any kind of prejudice in 2017 and moving on," Pharrell Williams said yesterday on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. Speaking about anti-gay remarks that another performer had made, Williams added "We all have to get used to everyone's differences and understand that this is a big, gigantic, beautiful, colorful world, and it only works with inclusion and empathy. It only works that way."

Knowing what to say and when

A couple of weeks ago, a floral delivery driver I know, walked up to a house with a large beautiful flowering plant. Assuming it to be a holiday gift, he said to the woman opening the door, "Boy are you a lucky lady." The woman burst into tears. The driver later found out that the plant was a sympathy gift. The woman had just lost her husband. He was trying to be kind but cheerfully greeting her, but not knowing all the facts, he added to her sorrow. I've been thinking about this and realized that we sometimes need to know what to say, and when to say it.

Watched it die

Be honest. How many of you stayed up late on Saturday, just so you could watch 2016 die. It wasn't exactly the kindest of years. But, although its effects will linger on, we have a brand new year with us now, and on this second day, let's think for a moment of all the kind things we can do to make this a great year. Let's begin by being good to ourselves and those immediately around us, and then, let's head out and show the whole world the ways of love and peace.

Writing a new book

It is time to begin this 2017 book. For so many of us, 2016 was pretty tough. A lot of us are really discouraged about what may lie ahead, but today we have opened a brand new book. We can start fresh.  The book might be called opportunity or it might be called hope. We write these chapters. It's pages are blank right now. We are going to put words on them ourselves. Let's make this new book a best-seller!