Good Morning to the World

Just thought I'd say good morning to the world today. I thought I'd give us all a pep talk. Things seem overwhelming for all of us at times. For some it is major events---fire, death in the family, earthquake. For others, it can be as simple as a sink full of dirty dishes and 3 baskets of unfolded laundry. No matter what your current place is, it is a season. It is not forever. I know I sound like a broken record. I'm always thinking about seasons and transitions. For the most part, though, the things we go through will change with time. Most of us have no long term trauma to deal with. Most of us are not starving or slaves or in any kind of holocaust of sorts. It's a matter of perspective, I think, because there are still those on the planet who have chronic suffering. And most of us in the soft comfortable world of first world problems have a tendency to ignore and put out of our minds those who chronically suffer today. We cannot forget those who suffer. We must remember them and try to help if we can.

That said, we cannot let things out of our control totally overwhelm and depress us. Only certain things we can control. We can control our thoughts and prayers. We can control our words and actions. We can control our choices.

I just want to throw out there that I think we can choose kindness and gentleness more, not only to the world around us, but to ourselves and our close families. Be kind to yourself. Be gentle with yourself. You don't have to compare your pain and suffering with another person's life. You don't have to say that your pain is not worthy of love and compassion, grace and gentleness. It is. Even if you compare it, and in the big scheme of things, you think think your pain is minimal. It might be. It might not be. It is still ok to be kind and gentle to yourself.

Most of us only show others a mere surface view of our lives. We crop it and photoshop it, and put pretty borders and filters on it til it looks just so. I showed you pictures of crocuses, but I didn't show all the mud and dead grass all around. I didn't show the carport filled with kid clutter--old broken bikes, cardboard boxes, rakes, stuff, etc. I didn't show the grass growing through the broken asphalt around our broken down van in our driveway.

And yet......the crocuses are enough. They are beautiful by themselves. It's ok to search and find those small things of beauty to be thankful for. I just want you to know.....hey guess what??? All the people you compare yourself to.......they crop and photoshop their world, too. They compartmentalize and crop out the ugly, and don't share it with anyone. They share the pretty parts. We all do. Let's be gentle with them, too, and try not to judge or compare. It's possible they're trying to hide their pain, too, and put on a calm front.

So I say good morning and I love you. Find some encouraging words to say to yourself today and also those around you. It sounds like a cliche but it's true. Your kind words or hug today may be the only kindness they hear.

Thought I was done with this post, but I remembered a story from when my girls were younger. When my 2 girls were like 8 and 5 (hard to remember), they had a habit of hugging people in the grocery and telling girls and ladies that they were beautiful. Well, one day they were doing their little girl thing, passing out hugs and kind words, and they made a check out girl cry. She said that it was the first time in her life that anyone had ever told her she was beautiful. This young check out girl made it all the way to college age without anyone telling her she's beautiful. Such a simple thing my girls did that day.

I'm pretty sure that check out girl will remember that hug and those words for a long time. So if no one has told you anything encouraging, I'll get you started. You have been created for a specific purpose. You are worth spending time with, and you have special talents and strengths that no one else has. Don't let the photoshopped world get you down.