One Day

I stumbled upon this encouraging website ( http://lifevestinside.com/ ) this morning--another example of ambitious people trying to make--strike that--making the world a better place in their own little ways.  I really like their "Act of the Day" daily challenges, like today's: "Give someone the benefit of the doubt - it will be the greatest gift they ever receive....things aren't always as they seem - don't be so quick to judge."  The Kindness Boomerang Video is a tad on the cheesy side but well intentioned, and done to the tune of one of my all time favorite songs, One Day.  Okay...it's cheese overload so you better grab yourself a sleeve of Ritz before pressing play; but, until the world is a place where a person can go out and capture the message from five minutes of real life, its cheese or famine. 

Seems there are so many out there--even most of us perhaps--who have these great aspirations, who want to be nice, who want the world to be kind, who want to make a difference for good, and yet somehow we just don't seem to make it happen, particularly not in obvious, recordable ways like we feel we should.  If I were to start philosophizing in this blog on this subject, as I so often do silently within the confines of my mind, well...let's just say this blog would get very, very long and quite possibly not make much sense.  So I'll just skip to the conclusion of all the long conversations with myself that go on in this crazy head of mine.  Actually, I'll do one better.  I'll recast the conclusion as my goals for the New Year.  Being couched in the form of "don't," "never" and "always," they probably go against all rules about goal setting, but perhaps my resolution for this year will be just that--to break a few more "rules:" 

Never weary of giving, forgiving, doing good, being kind, loving others, or wanting to do so.

Never cease believing that the world can be a better place and that I can make it so in some way.

Believe.  Believe in others.  Believe in love.  Believe in the present and the future.

Believe that "getting the short end of the stick" is actually the best gift.

Find the good.  Give grace. 
Do everything out of love.

Be grateful, be humble, be gracious, be amazed.  Always.  In everything.

Never grow frustrated and never give up when realizing at the end of each day
just how short I have fallen of my aspirations. 

Try again, fail again, fail better.

Remember that lots of little things add up to big things.