For This Month of Love Smile More and Be Kind
By this time many of our New Year’s resolutions are waning or are all but forgotten. There’s a simple, (but not always easy) one that I’m trying to hold on to.
It fits perfectly into this month of love and is a fitting setup for Lent, which by the way starts on Valentine’s Day.
My resolution that I’m striving to keep is: Don’t judge – be kind.
Mother Teresa said, “Let us all meet each other with smile, for the smile is the beginning of love.”
I recently discovered the late Wayne Dyer’s PBS recordings on YouTube. Dyer was an American philosopher, self-help author, and a motivational speaker.
In one of his programs he likened us to an orange: When you squeeze it; you get orange juice, because that’s what is inside. Duh! Right? But what is inside of us is what comes out. In other words, if you choose to be kind, happy, empathetic, then what “comes out” when you interact with others is kindness and love.
If you are filled with frustration, anger, hate – that is what comes out.
Simple, I agree. Most times the answers we seek are the simplest.
Another nugget that I particularly liked that Dyer shared was that ego was an acronym for edging God out – E.G.O.
It’s so easy for us to submit to our ego. It feels good when someone feeds our ego, but when it’s put in those terms – “edging God out” – it makes you stop and think.
One of my favorite movie quotes is from Al Pacino playing the Devil in The Devil’s Advocate. After coercing Keanu Reeves character to agree to do something by appealing to his ego, the Devil says, “Vanity, my favorite sin.”
In this “month of love” won’t you join me in smiling more and being kind to others?
