Regardless of public laws, how am I treating the people I actually come in contact with? If those who interact with me know I will bend over backwards to respect their rights and defend them against injustice, I will have given them a great gift.
Even the problems that confront us are opportunities for growth. But we won’t profit from any of these things or make a worthy contribution to our world if we’re not alert — which means that we’re characterized by quickness to recognize and respond.
Our blessings must not be allowed to slip by unused and unenjoyed. They’re only ours for a little while, so let’s not waste them. Let’s grasp the life that is ours individually, and open our hearts more fully to the goodness of “ordinary” things.
“A moment’s insight is sometimes worth a lifetime of experience.” I have found that to be true. It is not unusual these days for me to get a new insight and say, “Knowing that one truth is worth every mile of the journey that it took to get there.”
“A trip to nostalgia now and then is good for the spirit, as long as you don’t set up housekeeping” (Dan Bartolovic). Kept in balance with other priorities, a joyful remembrance of the past can refresh us, improve our perspective, and energize us.
We should be grateful for whatever increases our humility. Those words are not difficult to write, but in real life they are exceedingly hard to accept, for the simple reason that pain and difficulty are usually the things that increase our humility.
In its most basic sense, regard simply means awareness, and the fact is, this is one of the greatest things we can do for those around us. This is, needless to say, the exact opposite of rudeness, which seems to be on the increase in our culture.
There are choices we can make that will move us in the direction of attractiveness. We can cultivate the quality of being likable. Regardless of our heredity and our circumstances, we can choose to be more pleasant today than we were yesterday.
It takes a certain amount of discipline to be a thankful person. For most of us, it doesn’t come naturally. We have to choose to be grateful rather than ungrateful — and we have to choose to express our gratitude. But these choices are well worth making.
Practice is the key to learning. Whatever the topic, our understanding of it is not likely to grow if we merely sit around and think about it. Study is profitable, but our questions in life are answered not in the study but on the battlefield.
