From what view do you see the world?
Are you someone lost in a crowd? Are you at the top of the mountain far out of reach from others? Are you alone in the middle of the ocean looking for some sign of life from above (and hoping not to feel any from below?) Or are you always, no matter where you are, with arms extended? Reaching out to help, to embrace, to encourage others?
When you change your perspective about your life, your stance, your challenges, and your circumstances and shift them toward solutions, light, joy, and gratitude, you instantly change (and improve) not only your own life, but also the lives of those you love, your friends, your acquaintances, and the strangers that come upon your life’s path each day. Life is a state of mind.
Your perspective is at the helm of your ship.
I imagine that for some folks, this concept seems ridiculous and hard to understand, or at least difficult to agree with – they have their own responsibilities, bills, dreams, stuff to own, checklist of things to do, appointments to keep, and empires to build (whether they work on all those by talking about them as they crank their elbow at the local watering hole or they juggle those “to do” things while glued to their 21st century tech toys from behind the wheel of their car.) “How can this world, this existence be about anything BUT me?” they query rhetorically to themselves in their rearview mirrors.
While, of course, the more solid our foundations – the better we can reach out to others and be of service to them. If we are emotionally, physically, spiritually, financially, and/or intellectually healthy – we can help others more easily. If we are all about prayer and quoting the Bible, but dare never consider paying someone’s monthly mortgage for a season (though we can afford to), what good are we? If we have read and internalized every self-help book on the Top Ten List, but enable our friends to continue making the same mistakes over and over without speaking up to remind them they are better than being someone’s second best, what good are we? If we know the benefits of reading and learning and yet never encourage others in our lives to explore, for themselves, the views, perspectives, and experiences of great writers, musicians, and artists, what good are we? If we don’t teach others, through our own daily actions, that senior citizens, children, and everyone of every race, creed, and color have the right to be heard, happy, and held, what good are we?
Five of the greatest words we can say, we can teach others, we can mean, we can act upon are – HOW CAN I HELP YOU? What can you do, today, to make someone’s day better? What can you write to someone, say to someone, do for someone – to be that spark that will ignite a new flame of hope in their perspective?
In the process of taking the focus off of ourselves, we instantly contribute to creating an environment of calm, joy, and love – wherever we are in any moment of any given day.
Take the gifts God has given YOU personally – bring them to life – use them to be of service to others and to make things better than how you find them. God has given us all the tools, gifts, and blessings we could imagine – we just need to be open to accepting them, using them, and sharing them.
You can start right now, in this moment. Think of a senior citizen in your life, on your street, in your family – call him right now. Call him, and LISTEN to him – with no distractions (don’t call him while you are driving, watching tv, or reading your email) – let him, in detail, talk about about the terrible green beans that he had with his turkey sandwich for lunch. Let him talk while you listen – wholeheartedly, lovingly, patiently.
Then call him again tomorrow and find out what he loves to eat.
And then, bring it to him one day this week.
It’s as simple as that. One phone call, one card, one sandwich, one moment of your life shared with another.
