Appreciation

Yesterday I compared my life to eggs. Today I'm comparing it to gravy....as in a state of complacency or happiness. It is Teacher Appreciation Week. I am reminded how blessed I am to learn from some of the brightest minds each day in my classroom. Even at the ripe old age of 6 or 7, these children teach me so much...about life, about kindness, about perseverance. And so today my thoughts center on appreciation. I am grateful to have amazing students with parents who make their children's well-being paramount. I am also grateful for those in my life who are generous with their friendship and steadfast in their love. Someone once said, "Kindness, like a boomerang, always returns." This, I know is true.

***

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

***

The most important trip you may take in life is meeting people halfway. ~Henry Boye

***

Beginning today, treat everyone you meet as if they were going to be dead by midnight. Extend to them all the care, kindness and understanding you can muster, and do it with no thought of any reward. Your life will never be the same again. ~Og Mandino

***

I expect to pass through life but once. If therefore, there be any kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do to any fellow being, let me do it now, and not defer or neglect it, as I shall not pass this way again. ~William Penn

***

Three things in human life are important. The first is to be kind. The second is to be kind. The third is to be kind. ~Henry James

***

Love and kindness are never wasted. They always make a difference. They bless the one who receives them, and they bless you, the giver. ~Barbara de Angelis

***

Kind words can be short and easy to speak but their echoes are truly endless. ~Mother Teresa

***

"To handle yourself, use your head;
to handle others, use your heart."
- Donald Laird

***

For it is in giving that we receive.
~St. Francis of Assisi

***

"You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give." ~Kahlil Gibran

***

When we feel love and kindness toward others, it not only makes others feel loved and cared for, but it helps us also to develop inner happiness and peace. ~Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama

***

At the end of life we will not be judged by how many diplomas we have received, how much money we have made, how many great things we have done.

We will be judged by 'I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was naked and you clothed me, I was homeless and you took me in.'

Hungry not only for bread -- but hungry for love. Naked not only for clothing -- but naked for human dignity and respect. Homeless not only for want of a room of bricks -- but homeless because of rejection.

~Mother Teresa

***

“By the accident of fortune
a man may rule the world for a time,
but by virtue of love and kindness
he may rule the world forever.”
~Lao-Tse

***

So long as we love we serve;
So long as we are loved by others,
I would almost say that we are indispensable;
And no one is useless while they have a friend.
~Robert Louis Stevenson

***

I expect to pass through this world but once; any good thing therefore that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now; let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again. ~Stephen Grellet

***

To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and to endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

***

Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt have crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be cumbered with your old nonsense. This day is all that is good and fair. It is too dear, with its hopes and invitations, to waste a moment on yesterdays. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

***

The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude to me is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than success, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, gift, or skill. It will make or break a company...a church...a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past...we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10 percent what happens to me and 90 percent how I react to it. And so it is with you... we are in charge of our attitudes. ~ Charles Swindoll

***

And two from a favorite, Ralph Waldo Emerson:

"Life is short, but there is always time enough for courtesy."

"You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late."

If Emerson isn't convincing enough, consider this:

If you step on people in this life, you're going to come back as a cockroach.
~Willie Davis

Be good to yourself...and others.