Being grateful

Congratulations. You made it through another year. If you are making resolutions, let me suggest one. Be more kind. Be more helpful and be more grateful.

You may not be able to make this a world where people don’t bully others. But we, as individuals, can do our part to make the world more kind, more helpful and more gracious.

When I think of grace, I think of gratitude. Someone who is filled with grace, is filled with gratitude. As difficult as things can sometimes be, you are alive. And that’s pretty amazing.

There are kind people in the world. And if we actively look for them, we will find them.

There is a really great article by Sam Dylan Finch about finding joy and embracing fallibility in social justice work. He said, when he worked for a group fixated on pointing out things that were wrong and needed fixing, his mental health suffered and he became mean. When he joined a group focused on finding and focusing on things going right, his whole attitude changed.

Because dignity and care and kindness have to come from a genuinely loving place. And if you become too absorbed in righteousness & despair, and you don’t balance it with the healing work that allows you to love on your people and see THAT as truly radical… you lose yourself.

Sam Dylan Finch 

If you want to make the world better. If you want to make yourself better … focus on being kind, helpful and gracious. The easiest way to start being kind, is to start focusing on things that are going right and to be grateful for things, even if they are little.

Have a good year everyone.