A little kindness....

....goes a long way. But what about a lot of kindness? Well, there are two schools of thought. (Is anything ever straightforward...!!!)  Some say it doesn't get you anywhere. If you are too kind, they insist, it works against you. People take you for granted and treat your generosity as a weakness they can exploit. But being kind always gets you somewhere - and it is always somewhere worth getting.

 

Even if it just gets you right back where you started, that will only be because where you started from is the right place to return to!

We've got this gift of love, but love is like a precious plant. You can't just leave it in the cupboard and think it's going to get on by itself. You've got to keep watering it, to really look after it and nurture it.

They say....

.....That's right, 'they' are back - They say the truth hurts. This means that 'they' have given us another misleading statement; one that implies that dishonesty may be painless. Yet deception, as we all know, can be agonising when it is found out - and pretty stressful to keep up too. No process in this world, though, can stop life from having sharp edges from time to time.

  

It's just that the truth stings briefly when it cuts, before healing quickly and well; whereas falsehoods have little initial impact, but slowly turn to festering sores.

Forgiveness is not an occasional act, it is a constant attitude  (Martin Luther King)

It's perfectly possible to take....

....a secret with you to the grave. Sooner or later, though, perhaps long after you've gone, it will find its way to the light. Secrets are like pockets of air in the river of existence. They naturally have to find some way to reach the surface. As with information, so with emotion - but here the pressure to reveal is stronger.

We can't hide the way we really feel forever.

To love means loving the unlovable. Faith means believing the unbelievable. 
Hope means hoping when everything seems hopeless.    (G.K.Chesterton)

A funny thing happens....

....to people who have realised that they love one another. They find their capacity to care is seemingly limitless. Even if, prior to this realisation, a person or situation hardly mattered, now things are different. Love and concern are not the only emotions that can be 'self-replenishing'.

Our reserves of compassion, patience, tolerance and kindness are inexhaustible if we only allow them to be.

Let us always meet each other with a smile, for the smile is the beginning of love.   (Mother Theresa)

Be yourself....

....It sounds like great advice. Wise. Incisive. Empowering. But in order to be who you really are, you first have to know who that is. The true fact of the matter is that none of us do. We have a rough idea. We cling pretty tightly to the sketchy self- image we have managed to develop.

Often, though, this only causes us to become more entrenched in opinions we ought to be growing out of.

An obstinate person doesn't hold opinions, but is held by them.  (Hugh Blair)

Poor and content is the rich....

....and rich enough; But riches fineless is as poor as winter To him that ever fears he shall be poor. The words come from Shakespeare's Othello, so I'm told. The message comes from long before good old Will was born... and will surely remain relevant for the rest of time.

 

It's not what we have that makes us happy. Nor is it what we don't have that makes us sad. What compromises our well-being is what we wish we had but cannot get or, worse, what we fear we may lose.

If I have enough money to eat I'm good.   (Shia LaBeouf)

Our world contains seemingly millions of....

....unwritten codes of behaviour that we transgress at our peril. (Ha! There are times when I feel as if I've grown old kicking out against most of them.) We are judged by our peers and found wanting if we fail to follow their protocols. Take, for example, the thorny issue of identity. Why are we all allowed only one each? Why can't we have several to pick and choose between according to our mood?

 

If you now don't feel what you used to feel, nor want what you used to want; in some circles, this is called inconsistency. A much better word would be progress.

An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered.  (G K Chesterton)