Reflections of Joy & Kindness

Kindness, positivity and joy can be our personal default mode. So can judgement, negativity and despair. We can choose self-focused or other-focused. If we look out for just our self, we only have one person on our side. If we all look out for each other, we have billions on our side. My hope and prayer are that these snippets will become seeds, taking root and blooming into kindness and joy. The biggest movements, both within each of us and in the world, begin with simple thoughts and actions. I try to listen to my 'nudge' thoughts. I believe that is one of the ways God moves, inspires, and sometimes dissuades me. He nudged me to start scratching down my thoughts on pen and paper - sometimes in large batches, sometimes just one. Each one of them gave me pause to reflect and to try to apply it to some portion of my life to just possibly make the world a little better place - for others and myself. We live in unprecedented times, but then again, almost every generation before this one thought so too. We, like them, have choices we can make every day. We get to choose our attitude, even if we can't always choose our path. We can choose how we treat ourselves and others, even if we can't choose how others treat us or themselves. Kindness is not a zero-sum game. We all benefit, and all the benefits multiply exponentially when they are shared. Joy is always an option.