If someone’s miserable, why do they have to spread around the agony? I know this is how life works: our emotional decisions affect not only ourselves but our families, friends and sometimes complete strangers who happen to be in the way of our ill will or our peacefulness.
Yearly resolutions rank low on my priority list, but considering that I had just witnessed a bad-humored customer bark at a bank teller just doing her job, I decided to act more boldly in my everyday life, especially when I see injustices. I offered encouragement to the teller who had shown bold courage in the face of opposition. And the sense I had was of warmth, strength, human compassion, kindness. How satisfying to look into her eyes knowing that I had supplied a measure of support.
This message is adapted from “Mothering Seasons” written by Gail Kittleson in the June 2005 issue of Lutheran Woman Today (now Gather) magazine.
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