What a month!

June ends today.  What a month this has been too.  Oh my!  I have been busy.  I hope that you have been busy too.  Even more, I hope that you have shared kindness and brought some good to our world.  Tomorrow starts a brand new month and more opportunities.  Be safe.  Be well.  Be kind.

Impossible

The great Muhammad Ali said and did many thing that have inspired me.  Here is an example.  He said "Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing." 

come naturally

 This isn't difficult to any degree.  It isn't very hard at all.  Being kind should just come naturally.  It's not something you need to think out or make great plans for.  It just is.

care

There was a time when everybody cared about everyone else.  Really.  I'm not taking about being nosy.  I'm talking about genuine concern for other people, even if you don't know them.  That seems to have disappeared, and that makes me sad.  If you have a big family or a lot of friends, it might not seem like a big deal, but for others it does matter.  What a wonderful feeling it is to know that someone cares about you.  It also really feels good to be the caring one.

This is a kindness-only zone

Let's not be uncharitable, mean-spirited, mean, uncaring, cruel, unpleasant, nasty, vindictive, disagreeable, vicious, spiteful, malicious, unsympathetic, callous, unfeeling, or anything else that is negative.  Let kindness be the only way for us.  Let positive feeling and a happy spirit guide our way.  This is a kindness-only zone!

Inspiration

We all find inspiration from somewhere - our parents, God, perhaps a teacher or close friend. I am inspired by so many people, and some of that inspiration is what got me talking so much about kindness. I have a wonderful friend Toan who inspires me in every single thing he does. He has such a zest for life and enjoying it to the fullest. There's a celebrity who greatly inspire me too. Her name is Ellen and the kind and generous things she does are simply amazing. I'm so lucky to be inspired by so many, and at the top of the list is my late mother. Wow! What a great lady!

Unkind vs Kind

Have you ever had unkind things said about you? How did that make you feel? Now, take a moment to think about when kind things were instead said about you. I'll bet that felt a whole lot better, huh? If we all learned this simple lesson, we could make every day so much better.

Echoes of kind words

Thinking of the long show business career of Marlene Dietrich, you might not easily be able to quote her, but I find one tiny sentence of hers to me a great anthem for our lives. Dietrich said "Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless."

The Duke

My memory of actor John Wayne, "The Duke," is that he was a big man with a big heart. Despite being very conservative, there were things he said that have made a positive impact on me. One such saying: "Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It's perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we've learned something from yesterday."

kindest day of the year

What is the kindest day of the year? Many folks might say Christmas or Thanksgiving or some other holiday.  How about today? Why can't today be the kindest.  We can make this happen. Start spreading that kindness!  I say this all the time, but it really is true.

Fathers

Father’s Day began in 1910, two years after the first official celebration of Mother’s Day in the United States. It is the third Sunday in June each year (today). Of course we should always honor our parents, but today, be especially kind to your father.

Juneteenth words

Remembering on this Juneteenth, these words from Dr Martin Luther King Jr: "If the cruelties of slavery could not stop us, the opposition we now face will surely fail. Because the goal of America is freedom, abused and scorned tho’ we may be, our destiny is tied up with America’s destiny."

Fair treatment

EVERY single human being deserves to be treated fairly. There are no exceptions. Even if you are a criminal, you still deserve fair treatment. Folks going about their daily lives should not have to endure hate speech and everyone should be address by the name and the pronouns that they identify with. Doing anything else is not only unkind, it is hateful and mean.

Simple message

 It's a pretty simple message here every day:  be kind.  

What was I thinking?

Did you ever sit down and start to write something, but then your mind goes blank?  What was I thinking?  Have I run out of things to say?  Is there not even one more thing to be said about kindness?  Oh my!  You know the answer of course.  There is always more to say because there is always more to do, until kindness becomes a way of life for us all!

being happy

Being happy does not mean that everything is perfect. What it means is that you've decided to look beyond the imperfections.

How was your weekend?

Happy Monday everyone!  How was your weekend?  I hope you had a enjoyable time and I hope everyone now has a great week ahead.  Wherever you go and whatever you do, remember to be kind!

In appreciation of all those teachers

Letha Sines is someone I will never forget.  She was my sixth grade teacher and gave us so much!  My aunt, who later became a teacher also, was a student of Miss Sines too.  Even my sister had the great experience of this wonderful teacher, although by her year in sixth grade, she had become Mrs Letha Munson.  I fondly remember Lou Ella Gridley who taught me in fifth grade too, and Mrs Doyle from the fourth grade.  I appreciate them all, and my numerous friends and relatives who went into teaching.  Such a giving profession!

Loving Day

Loving Day might not be exactly what you think. Yes, it revolves around affection and relationships, but its history is more deeply rooted hate and discrimination. It involves an interracial couple, Mildred and Richard Loving, who were married in Washington in 1958. In Virginia though, where they made their home, it was "unlawful for any white person in the state to marry any save a white person." The landmark Supreme Court case Loving v. Virginia in 1967 ruled that state bans on interracial marriage were unconstitutional under the 14th Amendment. Something to indeed celebrate on this Saturday!

spread the kindness

Let me talk to you a bit about niceness or affection or helpfulness or hospitality or warmth or friendliness or unselfishness or benevolence or consideration or warmheartedness or neighborliness or charitableness or gentleness or understanding or thoughtfulness or generosity or big-heartedness - in other words, kindness. That's what this daily blog is all about. Spread the word, and spread the kindness.  

How you make people feel

Just about everything I ever heard from the incredible Maya Angelou, makes me feel good. It's so appropriate that she is the one who said "I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."

First time visitor

If you are a first time visitor, I do hope you will come back.  This daily blog is about kindness and how we can be kind to each other.  I'm not an expert by any means.  I have no special training that would lead me in this direction.  I'm just someone who wants to share the joys of love and kindness and I invite you not only to read the words here, but to share yours as well, by commenting in the space below.

Besties

Celebrating National Best Friends Day on this Tuesday.  Do you have a bestie?  Do something extra nice for them today.  Some folks might not be so fortunate to have a best friend.  Reach out to them today too!

The Fortune Cookie

My fortune cookie said "All great things had small beginnings." Indeed. We want a better world. We want a better life for our children. We want a more kind and more caring humankind. "Oh it is so difficult. It's too big for me!" So often we can become discouraged. What can one person do after all? Well we can change the world. We can make things better. Even if we are the only one at the beginning, we just need to remember that all great things had small beginnings.

Cancer Survivors

Today is National Cancer Survivor’s Day. Be especially kind to those battling various cancers and those who care for them. Many of the most commonly diagnosed cancers have ten-year survival of 50% or more, which is so much better than years ago. We must continue the fight though and wipe out all cancers. Cancer took both my grandmother and mother. I know many though who have beaten their cancers, and today I am thinking of them.

couldn't care more

I have no idea who said this, but it isn't my own original thought. (I have searched, and can't find it, but I am certain I read it somewhere or heard someone else say it). "In a world full of people who couldn't care less, be someone who couldn't care more." Yeah, it's not my original thought, but I certainly agree with it!

Corgi Day

Today International Corgi Day, which celebrates both corgi breeds and corgi-mixes and brings people together through their love of long dogs with short legs to give to dogs in need. Be kind to the corgis and all animals. Oh and be kind to each other too of course!

From the mouth of Billy Porter

During this Pride Month, I'm thinking of these inspiring words from Billy Porter: "Just by the nature of making the choice to be true to who I am, I'm political. Sometimes that's all you need to do: Show up and be black, gay and Christian in America and actually say it out loud. And refuse to let anything or anybody take that away from you."

Are they stars?

Look up into the sky, and think about this wonderful Eskimo Proverb: “Perhaps they are not stars, but rather openings in heaven where the love of our lost ones pours through and shines down upon us to let us know they are happy.”

Equality for everyone

June is LGBTQ Pride Month. You might be thinking things have improved so much over the years that there is no longer any discrimination against those who identify as lesbian gay bisexual transgender queer or questioning. Wrong. There are more legal protections in some places, but at the same time there are new laws that discriminate and target the LGBTQ community. Equality should be a reality for everyone. Nobody should have to live in a closet. Nobody should have to hide from anyone. And nobody should be discriminated against because of who they are.