Be Kind

As we come to this time of year I like to reflect on what I might be able to change in myself during the new year.  I love Christmas.  I enjoy Thanksgiving.  But I do look forward to what is ahead.  Call me an optimist.  I guess I'll take it!

What am I going to work on?  Well.  I do need to up the exercise and slow down on the food intake.  Who wouldn't benefit from that?  And I might want to work on some of the things I have left sitting around...both in the house and out.  Lots of projects to do.  But there always needs to be an incentive to get off ground zero and launch into it!  Ah...ambition!  Mine seems to have got up and gone.

In the last few days a thought has come to me.  I need to work on my attitude.  Of late, it has gone south.  Small things irritate me.  I feel grumpy and grouchy for no reason.  And there are times I do not realize it.

I need to work on being kind.  Not only in the words I say, but in the things I let myself think...and do.  Kindness is not easy.  Sometimes I feel as if I am "entitled" to be ugly to others...either in word or deed.  That is wrong.  So wrong.

What is so difficult about being kind?

1. It takes effort.  Yes it does.  It is a simple thing to feel that we have been wronged.  Sometimes we have...but many times it is just our conception of a situation.  I am going to try to count to 10, or take a minute or two to look at myself and what I am doing.  Is it them, or it?  Or is it me?

2.  Have patience.  I am short on patience.  I would like to think that it is just part of my DNA..a convenient excuse...and that is all that it is.  Taking it slow and easy is hard.  But it will help me when I am pushed to rush to judgement and choose a harsh word or worse, a bad attitude.

3.  And last of all, look the situation over.  See the other person's point of view.  Perhaps they are having a bad day.  I once was guilty of making a server in a restaurant weep because I acted impatiently.  And my words hurt her.  I apologized to her later.  She was surprised, but I really needed to let her know that it wasn't her fault. 

So here it is.  In black and white.  Hold me to it, friends and neighbors!  Please.  

Be Kind.  My motto for 2019...and hopefully, beyond.