“The life I
touch for good or ill will touch another life, and in turn another, until who
knows where the trembling stops or in what far place my touch will be felt.”
---Frederick
Buechner
What if other’s tomorrow were
entirely up to you? I mean, what if your influence, your very presence,
determined what type of day each person you came into contact had? How would
today have been? Would folks be glad they were with you or would they have just
wished you stayed home today?
Tomorrow each of us will come into contact
with numerous people—some we know and others we have yet to befriend. Each of
us possesses the potential to brighten their day, put a smile on their
respective faces, and send them off prepared to do the same for others.
Now, many of these folks will most
likely have a perfectly fine day no matter what we do, or leave undone. However,
there are countless others who need us: folks who need us to smile at them
because it has been a long time since their heart has been warmed by a smile; folks
who need us to compliment them because it has been far too long since someone
made them feel special; folks who have been pushed to the margins of society
and are just waiting for someone to bring them back in with an act of kindness
that restores their dignity.
What we do, or leave undone, will
have ramifications tomorrow. Imagine how much better tomorrow will be if each
of us accepts the responsibility to be kind to all those we meet tomorrow—it would
be a great day. Tomorrow we can make a difference, and none of us knows where
that difference will end or how important it will be.
We make the difference today, here, now (either we know, want, plan it or not), by what we do or leave undone. The ownership of the goodness (Godness?) in each of us is the one energy that not only transforms in primordial, raw, profound goodness again, but also creates, generates more of itself. This difficult to grasp or to hold energy of human mind and heart, if "tamed" and then purposely “unleashed”, replicates and not even the sky is the limit. And yes, that would be a great day: the day each of us would free and bestow the positive intentions, the warm smiles, the kind words... I always said that words are like arrows. Once they reach their target, they cannot be taken back and nothing can completely erase the trace they leave behind (this being true for both the ones residing, lurking in darkness and ignorance as for the ones springing out from light, love, and compassion.) It is a matter of choice: to hurt, or to heal, to tear apart, or to uplift. How meaningful we are to others is spelled by the choices we make to affect them. Our lives should not be the sum of the events we are involved in but rather how we react to those events, what choices we make. The “positive butterfly effect” my friend!
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