The Caring Catalyst

Who Cares - What Matters

That Kindness Beat

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What’s the song
—your song—
that you’re giving,
teaching the world to hear,
hum
 As the world fights to figure everything out,
Political unrest
COVID,
BLM,
Life. . .
It’s an easy question
for the current moments
as we quickly leave the Holiday’s
(WHAT HOLIDAY’S)
way out of the sight of our rear view mirrors:
DO YOU WANT TO HAVE A GREAT MONDAY. . . ?
DO YOU WANT A GUARANTEED MOST AWESOME LIFE. . . ?
Be Bold Enough
T R Y
Holding doors for strangers
Letting people cut in front of you in traffic
Keeping babies entertained in grocery lines
Stopping to talk to someone who is lonely
(or someone who’s not)
Tipping generously
Sharing food
Giving children (and the Children in all of us)
a thumbs-up
Being patient with sales clerks and tired waitresses
Smiling at passersbys
Complimenting strangers. . .
W H Y ?
Because
from now on
standing to live in a world
where love is invisible
is no longer acceptable. . .
Join me in
BEING
k i n d n e s s
PERSONIFIED COMPASSION
Understanding
judging less. . .
Be kind to a stranger
give grace to people who may be having a bad day
(assuming that everyone you meet might be having their worst day ever)
Be forgiving with yourself.
If you can’t find kindness
(because it hides sometimes better than showing off it’s bad self)
BE KINDNESS
Person by Person
Put down forever
the gavel of judgement
and it that hallowed
S i L e N c E
HEAR PEACE
That KINDNESS BEAT
that’ll do much more than get your foot tapping
. . .it’ll get it
MARCHING
in a new direction
HEAR YE,
HEAR YE. . .

A POEM OF US

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Quite a lot to stand up at
Attention
Salute
and notice these past few days
all in a word
U N I T Y
but like most
w o r d s
they mean little
until they take on a meaning
far past
and deeper
than an ear can hear
a mouth can shout
or a mind, understand. . .
Maybe that’s an odd definition of a Poem
but when it’s
E X P E R I E N C E D
hearing or reading it
doesn’t matter
until it does
. . .until it does BOTH

Amanda Gorman’s Inaugural Poem
“THE HILL WE CLIMB”

Amanda Gorman became only the sixth inaugural poet in history,  and the youngest ever, on Wednesday when she read her poem “The Hill We Climb” after the swearing-in of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

Gorman’s poem – written at least partially in the aftermath of the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol Building on Jan. 6 – weaves the soaring language typical of inaugural poems past with sharp, syncopated lines about events from just days ago.

The Inaugural Poem has become a tradition for Democratic presidents since John F. Kennedy’s inauguration in 1961, when Robert Frost read his poem “The Gift Outright.”

At his first inaugural address in 1993, President Bill Clinton invited Maya Angelou to read her poem “On the Pulse of Morning.” Poet Miller Williams read at Clinton’s second inauguration, and Barack Obama had readings by poets Elizabeth Alexander and Richard Blanco at both of his ceremonies.

Gorman, a 22-year-old Harvard graduate, became the country’s first National Youth Poet Laureate in 2017. She is the author of the poetry book “The One for Whom Food is Not Enough.”

“Mr. President, Dr. Biden, Madam Vice President, Mr. Emhoff, Americans and the world: When the day comes we ask ourselves, ‘where can we find light in this never-ending shade, the loss we carry, a sea we must wade?’

We’ve braved the belly of the beast, we’ve learned that quiet isn’t always peace. And the norms and notions of what just is isn’t always justice. And yet the dawn is ours before we knew it, somehow we do it. Somehow we’ve weathered and witnessed a nation that isn’t broken, but simply unfinished.

We, the successors of a country and a time where a skinny Black girl descended from slaves and raised by a single mother can dream of becoming president only to find herself reciting for one.

And yes, we are far from polished, far from pristine, but that doesn’t mean we are striving to form a union that is perfect. We are striving to forge our union with purpose. To compose a country committed to all cultures, colors, characters and conditions of man.

And so we lift our gazes not to what stands between us, but what stands before us. We close the divide, because we know to put our future first, we must first put our differences aside. We lay down our arms so we can reach out our arms to one another. We seek harm to none and harmony for all.

“Let the globe, if nothing else, say this is true: that even as we grieved, we grew; that even as we hurt, we hoped; that even as we tired, we tried; that we’ll forever be tied together victorious, not because we will never again know defeat but because we will never again sow division. 

Scripture tells us to envision that ‘everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree and no one shall make them afraid.’ If we’re to live up to our own time, then victory won’t lie in the blade but in all the bridges we’ve made.

That is the promise to glade, the hill we climb if only we dare it, because being American is more than a pride we inherit – it’s the past we step into and how we repair it. 

We’ve seen a force that would shatter our nation rather than share it, would destroy our country if it meant delaying democracy. And this effort very nearly succeeded. But while democracy can be periodically delayed, it can never be permanently defeated.

In this truth, in this faith we trust for while we have our eyes on the future, history has its eyes on us. This is the era of just redemption we feared at its inception.

We did not feel prepared to be the heirs of such a terrifying hour, but within it we found the power to author a new chapter, to offer hope and laughter to ourselves. So while once we asked ‘how could we possibly prevail over catastrophe,’ now we assert: ‘how could catastrophe possibly prevail over us?’

We will not march back to what was, but move to what shall be: a country that is bruised but whole, benevolent but bold, fierce and free. We will not be turned around or interrupted by intimidation because we know our enaction and inertia will be the inheritance of the next generation.

Our blenders become their burdens but one thing is certain: If we merge mercy with might, and might with right, then love becomes our legacy in change, our children’s birthright.

So let us leave behind a country better than the one we were left. With every breath from my bronze-pounded chest, we will raise this wounded world into a wondrous one. We will rise from the gold-limbed hills of the west, we will rise from the winds swept north, east where our forefathers first realized revolution. We will rise from the lake-rinsed cities of the midwestern states. We will rise from the sun-baked South. We will rebuild, reconcile, and recover in every known nook of our nation and every corner called our country, our people diverse and beautiful will emerge battered and beautiful.

When day comes, we step out of the shade, aflame and unafraid. The new dawn blooms as we free it. For there is always light if only we’re brave enough to see it, if only we’re brave enough to be it.”

A Poem
uses words
Great Poems inspire actions
which transpires them. . .
T H A T
we may all be more
ADJECTIVES
than NOUNS
are never anything less
than Words
actually becoming Flesh
giving words and actions
a deeper
longer-lasting
M E A N I N G
leading down
a-not-so-overly-familiar-road
to a day
that can’t be found or contained
on a calendar. . .
Great is the Day:

May the words
New
Beginning
Unity
be the Colorful Threads
that find themselves
in Each of our Tapestries
that fly high
in a gentle breeze of
CHANGE
(always for the better)

A Poem of
U S
never has to rhyme
to give us
R E A S O N


INAUGURATED

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C O N G R A T U L A T I O N S
THIS IS YOUR DAY
not a personal
Christmas
Birthday
Memorial Day
Independence Day
Easter
Passover
Hanukkak
Kwanzaa
Labor Day
Halloween
Thanksgiving
New Year’s
No, no. . .
It is YOUR INAUGURATION DAY
Y O U R S
THE DAY
you will begin to bring a phase of
U N I T Y
the likes
you or no one else has ever experienced,
YOU

The inaugural speech that will be given in just a few mere hours is likely to echo calls for unity that predecessors have invoked since the first time George Washington was sworn in.

“Unity has always been an aspiration,” says presidential historian Douglas Brinkley. “It seems like whenever we have foreign policy flare-ups, we use the word freedom. But when we have domestic turmoil we use the word unity.”

The United States was forged through compromise among factions that disagreed profoundly on slavery, regional influence and the relative powers of state and federal government. When Washington assumed office in 1789 he cited the blessings of providence in noting that “the tranquil deliberations and voluntary consent of so many distinct communities, from which the event has resulted, cannot be compared with the means by which most governments have been established.”

Jefferson was the third U.S. president, and the first whose rise was regarded by opponents as a kind of emergency. The 1800 election won by Jefferson marked the beginning of competing political parties — Jefferson was a leader of the Democratic-Republican Party, losing incumbent John Adams a Federalist — and critics regarded the new president as a dangerous atheist. “JEFFERSON — AND NO GOD!!!” was how one Federalist paper described Jefferson’s candidacy. Adams did not attend the inauguration, a breach rarely repeated although Trump has vowed to do the same.

“Let us then, fellow citizens, unite with one heart and one mind,” Jefferson urged in his address. “We are all republicans: we are all federalists. If there be any among us who would wish to dissolve this union, or to change its republican form, let them stand undisturbed as monuments of the safety with which error of opinion may be tolerated, where reason is left free to combat it.”

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall, a Federalist who administered the oath of office to Jefferson, wrote later that the speech was “in the general well judged and conciliatory.”

Lincoln’s pleas were more dire, and tragically unmet, despite what historian Ted Widmer calls his “genius to combine urgency with literary grace.” Seven out of 11 future Confederate states had seceded from the U.S. before he spoke, in March 1861, over fears he would end slavery. The Civil War would begin a month later. “We are not enemies, but friends,” Lincoln had insisted, reminding fellow Americans of their “mystic chords of memory” while also warning that resistance to the will of voters would destroy democracy.

“A majority held in restraint by constitutional checks and limitations, and always changing easily with deliberate changes of popular opinions and sentiments, is the only true sovereign of a free people. Whoever rejects it does of necessity fly to anarchy or to despotism,” he said.

Historian David Greenberg, whose books include “Nixon’s Shadow” and “Republic of Spin,” cites Richard Nixon’s inaugural in 1969 as another speech given at a time of social turmoil. The U.S. was violently divided over the Vietnam War and civil rights, and Nixon himself had long been seen as an unprincipled politician exploiting fears and resentments — appealing to what he would call “the silent majority.” His speech at times was openly and awkwardly modeled on the 1961 inaugural of John F. Kennedy, who had defeated Nixon in 1960.

“We are caught in war, wanting peace. We are torn by division, wanting unity,” Nixon stated. “We cannot learn from one another until we stop shouting at one another — until we speak quietly enough so that our words can be heard as well as our voices.”

Some presidents asked for unity, others asserted it.

Franklin Roosevelt, elected in a landslide in 1932 during the Great Depression, said in his first inaugural speech: “If I read the temper of our people correctly, we now realize as we have never realized before our interdependence on each other.” Four years later, having won by an even greater landslide, he declared the country had “recognized” a need beyond financial help, a “deeper” need, “to find through government the instrument of our united purpose.”

Unity can prove more imagined than real. When James Buchanan spoke in 1857, three years before the Civil War, he claimed that “all agree that under the Constitution slavery in the states is beyond the reach of any human power except that of the respective states themselves wherein it exists.” Rutherford B. Hayes, whose presidency was marked by the retrenchment of federal troops from the post-Civil War South and ongoing resistance from Southern whites to equal rights for Blacks, declared during his 1877 inaugural that true peace could be achieved through the “united and harmonious efforts of both races” and the honest work of local self-government.

“A president often claims the country is ‘united’ behind a belief when it’s more wishful thinking than reality,” Widmer says. “I’m not sure how many Americans wanted to do something for their country after JFK asked them to — although there were impressive new kinds of volunteers, like the Peace Corps. And I think that many Americans still appreciated help from the government, even after Ronald Reagan declared that ‘government is the problem.’ “

So let’s have it. . .
what’s your speech
what are you going to say to
unify
validate
inspire
motivate
guide

What will you Legislate in your Personal Constitution:

What will you Amend into Law

Before you BRING HOPE
who will you look to
GET HOPE. . .

NOW THAT’S AN INAUGURAL STATEMENT
let it begin in the very Soul of
US
and beat from the very Heart of
US

THE MORAL OF THE STORY

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Sometimes. . .
there’s no need for the
Moral of the Story
Sometimes. . .
we are the
MORAL OF THE STORY
which is. . .
________________________________________________________________________
(GO AHEAD, FILL IN THE BLANK)
Sometimes. . .
it really is this simple:

OR
(even more simply):

(that is all)

Putting the NEW in new year

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This video by J J Heller makes
It a fair question. . .
especially since 2021 is just barely
under a 100 hours old:
WHAT MAKES FOR A HAPPY NEW YEAR?
Wealth
Health
Fitness
Weight
Possessions
Relationships
Vaccines
Scientific Discoveries
Medical Advances
Bank Accounts
Books
Music
Movies
YOUR FILL IN THE ____________________WISH
W H A T ?

There’s a reason why the
Windshield
is so very much bigger
than the rear view mirror;
G A W K
unblinkingly
at what lies before you
with only a quick glance
at what’s already behind you
. . .good advice for a New Year;
better advice for what ails you
(and it cuts down tremendously on collisions)

So make sure when you look back
to see ahead
your eyes aren’t covered
and you don’t blink. . .
Do you want to know the secret for having a successfully awesome
2 0 2 1
. . .it’s no different than the success
of any other years:
DO MORE FOR OTHERS
THAN YOU DO FOR YOURSELF
. . .GUARANTEE:
Making others Happy
will bring you unspeakable joy
. . .It’s like taking someone out to dinner:
YOU GET FED, too
Hey, don’t take my words for it:
You’ve got
8 6 6 4
hours to prove it beginning
NOW

Put the NEW
in a New Year
(You are that Powerful)

ILLUMINATED FRIDAY

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It’s not really much a riddle
as it is an
A S S U R E D I T Y :
What’s the opposite of Black Friday?
ILLUMINATED FRIDAY!
by the bucket full
and sadly
here’s my humble
attempt at trying to
not so much illuminate
your Black Friday
but also to
bring a glow into
the-quickly-coming-New Year ahead. . .

I first self-published The Candle Maker in 2001 and my publisher thought it would be a great idea to come up with a hardback anniversary version of it for this upcoming year of 2021 EARLY for those who might want to give it for a Christmas gift. . .A little schmaltzy, huh, especially when the real reason I wanted to self-publish this “HELP-SELF” book was to not so much have as much command over the total process of publication/distribution (it wasn’t for the $$$ because I’ve spent more making it than selling it) but mostly so that I could literally GIVE IT AWAY!
I give out copies of this book for two of the professional presentations I do:
BURNT OUT IS BURNT OUT and WHAT’S THE USE(S). . .
So here’s the pitch from AMAZON itself which is offering the Hardback and the Paperback:

The Candle Maker Hardcover – March 1, 2001

by Chuck Behrens (Author)5.0 out of 5 stars 1 rating

 See all formats and editions

This book quite possibly just might not be for you. Don’t be fooled by it’s length. If you’re looking for quick fixes, add water and presto actions, snap of the finger results and all with blink-of-the-eye fastness, this book just might not be for you. However, if you walk with this book three times a day, every day for the next twelve months, you’ll be able to run in the years following with renewed, purposeful steps and in ways this or no other book will ever be able to predict. So this just might prove that the best things in life are not instantaneous…at least not this.

This is not a ‘how-to’ or a ‘self-help’ book either. It’s more of a ‘help-self’ and a ‘want-to’ book. Unfortunately, purchasing this book won’t accomplish the task for which you have purchased it. No magical osmosis process here whereby you gain vast amounts of insight or wisdom merely by having the book or holding it a certain way for a certain amount of time at certain parts of the day. Apply yourself first to it and it will more than apply itself back to you.

And one last word: WARNING! This will cost you who you are for what you could become. . .not in a sprint, but rather, during the marathon this encourages you to perform. For the next 364 days live the capacity you are entitled and have been granted. Become like warmed wax that feeds the wick its eternal life source so that you may ultimately be molded–not hardened–but ever remained moldable again and again….

Once upon a time and for ever more learn, know that you can burn the candle at both ends and in the middle because you’ll know FINALLY where to get the wax and the wick and more, you’ll actually be inspired to go and do it.

The World
now more than in our lifetimes
seems more dark
more of a
BLACK FRIDAY
more of a whispy shadow
of what we’d like or
need it to be
without a completed sale
than ever before
and even back as I was writing this book
and self-publishing it
MY GOAL
then
and especially now
WAS TO NEVER TO BE A CANDLE SNUFFER
so much as a
FLAME SHARER

A LIGHT GIVER
with the powerful daily reminder of

Fully knowing that
the flicker I bring
only gets brighter with
the flicker you bring
and brighter still
when joined with
the flicker others bring
so purchased book or not
potential Christmas gift or not
JOIN ME

(Psssssssssssssssssssssssst:
Next Friday’s Blog Post will share the
FIRST CANDLE MAKER’S LESSON
to give you a head start for the New Year)


APPRECIATORY DAY

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S O
What will
Y O U
give the most
THANKS
for tomorrow on
THANKSGIVING DAY
very much in the thick of
the-ongoing-seemingly-never-ending-when-ever-are-we-going-to-get-cure
p a n d e m i c
or if you literally
FLIP THE COIN:
What’s the one thing you’re THANKFUL for because of COVID19?
and then there’s the obvious:

How Do We Celebrate Thanksgiving in a Pandemic?

We might not be able to gather for Thanksgiving this year—but that doesn’t mean we can’t make the holiday count. . .

 JILL SUTTIE, a journalist from GREATER GOOD made me begin thinking about THANKSGIVING, er, APPRECIATORY DAY

This year’s Thanksgiving dinner is going to look a bit different for most of us and my families.

With COVID-19 cases on the rise, none of that which happened in years past are literally YEARS PAST US. Like most people, we’ve had to revise our holiday plans to keep all the important people in our life safe.

It’s a disappointment, for sure. But what can we do about it? Is there any way to make this Thanksgiving something more than a mere shadow of itself? 

W E L L—just look to the science of meaning and connection. Finding ways to enhance our mood, foster closeness, remember what we’re thankful for, and savor the positive can all help preserve the wonder of the holiday (albeit in its new incarnation). 

Here are some ideas to make this Thanksgiving holiday special, even during COVID.

Use ritual to enhance connections and emotions

Many families have Thanksgiving traditions that make the holiday special. Maybe you always watch Thanksgiving Day football games together or spend the morning together tearing up bread for stuffing. Perhaps you make a special dish or bring out your favorite candlesticks made by your kids when they were in Kindergarten.  

Whatever rituals you’ve developed over the years, try to preserve them. There is a benefit to performing rituals together that goes beyond sentimentality or nostalgia: They imbue the holiday with meaning and help us feel closer to others.

Rituals are pretty easy to put together, too, if you need some new ones. When creating a ritual, the main objective is having a shared experience that has emotional resonance for the people involved. A ritual can take many forms, whether it’s lighting candles and making a wish for the holiday, singing a song or saying a prayer before dinner, or watching a great, uplifting movie after the feast is over. The key is that the experience has meaning and is emotionally engaging so that it bonds you to others.

Of course, old rituals may have to be tweaked if we are only gathering online. For example, celebrant, Jan Stanley, recommends that if you are gathering on Zoom, try to not just plunge into socializing, but take a moment to focus everyone’s attention somehow, perhaps explaining the plans for the evening and what you hope to do. You could create emotional highs by asking people to go around and say their favorite Thanksgiving memory, listening to a special playlist during dinner, or sharing photos of each other in the chat. If your family members are football fans, you could try watching a game concurrently, chatting away online during the play. 

Savor the sensory experiences of the holiday

One thing that makes Thanksgiving so special is its sensory richness. The smell of fresh roasted turkey, the sight of a candlelit table, the taste of a pecan pie. All of these sensory experiences can be a real pleasure, enhancing the joy of the holiday.

Too often, though, we rush through Thanksgiving—even the feast itself—not truly enjoying it. This is a mistake, when you can so easily enhance your pleasure by taking your time and purposefully savoring the experience.

How to do that? One way is to practice mindful eating, slowing down and deliberately tasting each bite of food. This involves turning your attention to your food as you eat it, letting the tastes linger on your tongue, and noting the variety of flavors and textures. 

You can also take a moment to consider how the food got to your table—the people who grew it, delivered it, and prepared it for you, or the earth, water, and sunshine that made the food possible in the first place. A little mindful eating can really enhance your Thanksgiving pleasure and even make you more aware of when your appetite is sated, preventing uncomfortable overeating.

Walking after dinner, as so many of us do on Thanksgiving, can also be enhanced by doing a savoring walk. Not only will you feel better for getting a little exercise and fresh air, but walking with an appreciation of the beauty and wonder of the world around you should help to enhance positive feelings.

Expand your sense of community

Every year around Thanksgiving, our family would find ways to give back to our community, often doing something within our Church Community that would help us reach out past ourselves to others not all that far removed from us and then REMEMBERING that NEED is always there, THANKSGIVING DAY or not. Some of those experiences were actually volunteering. Although volunteer opportunities are often no longer available because of COVID, we can still practice generosity and kindness, helping to create a sense of community beyond the walls of our homes.

First, you can seek out opportunities that still exist, if you feel safe doing so. In my local community, for example, there is a program at St Augustine that feeds hundreds of people every day, including the weekends that make it their CALL to do so on Thanksgiving Day, now not by congregating large masses of people together,but actually delivering meals to homes and the homeless alike and they always need DELIVERERS. When there’s a WANT-TO, you’ll always find a HOW-TO on where to share or give your talents. You can also look on nationalwebsites to find ways to give back.

Even if you can’t volunteer, you can still donate to programs that target the needy. Volunteering or donating might help you take your mind off of what you’re lacking this Thanksgiving and tune into the joy of helping others.

It’s also important to remember that people need more than just food to make Thanksgiving special. During this past year, many people in high-risk groups have had to isolate themselves. Reach out to those who are alone and could use a friendly phone call to know that you care. Seniors in your family or in your neighborhood, in particular, should be on your radar. 

Also, remember that many of us are more stressed out than usual, because we haven’t been able to do many of the things that help us to feel calmer and more connected. Certainly, you should do what you can to be calm and happy yourself, as those feelings tend to spread to those around you. But also, if you find that people seem more irritable than usual, take a deep breath and try responding with kindness. Give them the benefit of the doubt, which will help prevent an escalation of negativity.

Put “thanks” at the center of your Thanksgiving

Many of us are feeling less grateful than usual because of what we’ve suffered under the pandemic. Even worse, you may be grieving a loss, worried about your finances, or feeling lonely because of isolation. There’s no point in trying to ignore that reality. Instead, it can help to name your feelings and practice self-compassion, remembering to be kind and understanding toward yourself.

But feeling sad or worried doesn’t have to be the whole story of your Thanksgiving, either. While not denying those feelings, we can tip our minds and hearts in other directions by purposefully cultivating positive emotions—among them, gratitude.

Why gratitude? Well, besides being right in the name of the holiday, gratitude provides several benefits, even in hard times. For one, it makes us feel a deeper sense of well-being; when we tap into gratitude, we feel a welling up of warmth and love. And, as research shows, expressing gratitude helps us feel closer to others, and that’s a lot of what we really want from the holiday.

If you need ideas on how to practice gratitude, look to our website, Greater Good in Action. You can also simply go around your Thanksgiving table (or your family Zoom) and offer each person an opportunity to express one thing they are grateful for, even BECAUSE OF COVID19. Or maybe you just want to ask: WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE THANKSGIVING MEMORY or WHAT’S THE BEST GIFT YOU HAVE EVER RECEIVED or WHAT’S THE BEST BOOK YOU’VE EVER READ or IF YOU COULD MEET YOUR GREAT GRANDCHILDREN, WHAT WISDOM WOULD YOU PASS ON TO THEM, WHAT WOULD YOU WANT THEM TO KNOW or IF YOU COULD SPEND ONE DAY DOING A JOB THAT YOU ARE NOT CURRENTLY DOING, WHAT WOULD YOU DO or WHAT’S THE ONE THING YOU’RE THE MOST GRATEFUL FOR THAT YOU’VE NEVER SHARED?

It may seem hard at first to think of something, but don’t forget the small things you might otherwise take for granted, like the smile on your child’s face, the beauty of a first snow, or your sense of taste that allows you to enjoy your meal. Or you might pay homage to the Native American people who were here first and knew how to tend the land. 

We all have something we can be grateful for. If we’re able to, turning our minds toward the positive can brighten up an otherwise difficult Thanksgiving. 

Even with all of these ideas for preserving the Thanksgiving holiday spirit under the cloud of COVID, it won’t be the same. Like many people, I look forward to the day when we can gather again. In the meantime, I hope that by imbuing the holiday with a little gratitude, kindness, ritual, and savoring, it can still be a joyful occasion.

JOIN ME

Remember this Thanksgiving
to be just a little better, a little kinder, a little more loving, a little more compassionate, a little more forgiving, a little more understanding,
JUST A LITTLE MORE
than
M O S T
it’ll not just make all the difference this Thanksgiving
IT WILL MAKE ALL OF THE DIFFERENCE
(p e r i o d)

Too Soon?

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Practicing gratitude
implementing it in our lives
is a major part in realizing the good we have already,
like right now
Y E S
even NOW
2020
(that NOW)
in the middle of a pandemic crisis
and yet to even say
WE ARE IN THE MIDDLE
of anything
is more than a fair chance
to make
TO BE
A Difference. . .
A real game changer. . .

Here we are once again
(BUT REALLY BRAND NEW THIS YEAR)
getting to have a
THANKSGIVING
we’ve never quite experienced this year
in just 10 days. . .
Sure,
all of the fixings might be there
but our Thanksgiving Tables are
(no doubt)
going to look
going to feel
going to be
d i F f e R E n T
which really begs the question:
TOO SOON. . . ?

Is it ever too early
Too Soon
to be thankful. . . ?
Is there ever a time not to be grateful. . . ?
What tips the scales on your gratitude meter
and just when
. . .just when
was the last time that you tipped
Another’s scales?
Pssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssst. . .
Please tell me
I don’t have to give you
THE ANSWER. . .

THE KINDNESS OF

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EVEN IF
ESPECIALLY IF
it’s not worth your attention
it’s not worth your watching
it’s at least worth your effort
to specifically be more
K I N D
to
family
friend
foe
foreigner
(and yourself)

No matter what
the Clock
the Calendar
shows. . .


A GOOD WORD

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https://youtu.be/Wx2kTY63e2c

A       G   O   O   D       W   O   R   D

doesn’t become

ONE

when it’s Spoken

doesn’t become

ONE

when it’s Heard

but

when it’s
E       X       P       E       R       I       E       N       C       E       D.          .          .

“T  H  E  Y”

say:

YOU

s        h        o      w

whether it’s true
or  false.          .          .

BE
the WORD
Someone
needs to
k            n            o            w
(a l w a y s)
(  allways  )

Be
a Verb
to  Others.     .     .

 

Professional Speaker, Author, Assurance Man