There is a silence, the child of love, which expresses everything, and proclaims more loudly than the tongue is able to do. — William Drummond
“Live this day as if it will be your last. Remember that you will only find ”tomorrow” on the calendars of fools. Forget yesterday’s defeats and ignore the problems of tomorrow. This is it. Doomsday. All you have. Make it the best day of your year. The saddest words you can ever utter are, ”If I had my life to live over again. ”Take the baton, now. Run with it! This is your day! Beginning today, treat everyone you meet, friend or foe, loved one or stranger, as if they were going to be dead at midnight. Extend to each person, no matter how trivial the contact, all the care and kindness and understanding and love that you can muster, and do it with no thought of any reward. Your life will never be the same again.” –Og Mandino
“The folks you help won’t remember it and the folks you hurt won’t ever forget it.” — Bill Clayton
We think about loving family, loving friends. What we don’t think about are the simple courtesies we can extend to those we meet, to show our love and respect for them and the jobs they do for us, the help they provide us. I’ve seen so many people act rudely towards store clerks, waitresses, post office employees, neighbors, other people in their daily lives. We think our own lives are somehow more important, our own tasks more necessary, that somehow a dozen more clerks should instantly appear when the store gets busy for ten minutes because a lot of people happen to check out at the same time, or the post office should hire extra people for the 30 minute rush at lunch hour.
Take a deep breath and remember how many other people there are in this world, this country, this town. All with lives they value as much as you do yours. All with families of their own, some trying to live on a fraction of what you may make.
Be nice to other people, already. Even if only with your silence and a nod of thanks.
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[…] One of the most important guidance points in life I’ve come across lately is to love the people in fornt of you. I think of this every time I’m out in public and waiting in line, or ordering something, or being served in some way. This post hits on some of those very important points of simply being considerate of those who are serving you. […]