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Today's
quotation:
Too often we
underestimate the power of a touch, a smile,
a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the
smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to
turn a life around.
Leo
Buscaglia
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Today's
Meditation:
I spent
a long time being a person who always underestimated these
things. My thought was, "Why would they want
those things from me? Why would they matter to them
coming from me?" Somehow as I grew up I
internalized the message that I didn't matter, and
therefore the things I do don't matter. I'm very
glad that I learned that these thoughts were completely
untrue. My encouragement does help other
people; my kind words can make them feel better; my
compliments do mean something, my smile or act of
caring can make a difference in someone else's
life.
So
nowadays, I try to compliment people as much as I can, as
long as my compliments are sincere. I don't run
around complimenting everything I see just because
("you drank that coffee very well!"), and I
generally try to minimize my compliments on material
things that someone has bought and focus on things that
people have done well, said well, or worked on a
lot. When I compliment the third-graders in my class
for being so patient with the kindergartners, it makes
their day.
As a
teacher, I have to be careful. If I compliment
everyone for everything, it stops meaning anything at
all. And in some cases, it's important to hold off
on the compliment for a little while, when I know that
someone is working towards something very
important. But I do my best to compliment everyone I
can, even those who are doing poorly, and sometimes it
takes a little bit of digging and creativity to come up
with something that is worthy of a sincere
compliment. If I can't compliment on a result, I can
almost always compliment on the effort involved in
reaching it.
What
kinds of compliments can you give today? We really
shouldn't let any days go by without complimenting someone
for something, and preferably several someones for several
somethings. We're adding to the positive energy of
the world when we do so, and we're possibly giving a
little dose of hope to someone who can really need
it. They're free and easy to give, so why don't we
give more?
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