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
think we often hear things like this but they are hard to keep in mind. Hard
until the day comes that it happens. When you spend time with someone and then
the next day, they’re gone. I want to say I hope you never have to experience.
My experience says most of you will, at some point. Treat the people you love
well. Treat the people you don’t love well too. In the end, our actions will be
what we have to stand by, not how they were received. I do my best to treat
others with compassion and respect. I know that I could never have earned all
the kindness I have received from friends or strangers. I hope to pass that
kindness along, whether or not it is deserved. If I start judging who gets to
be treated like a human, I will quickly become inhuman.
I
had a young mother call me late one night to say her child was at the hospital.
A friend said to me, “She only calls you when she needs something.” I said,
“You’re right. Isn’t it great that she knows where to go for real support and
strength when she needs it?” I took a minute to say a prayer of thanks for the
people who gave me that to share and taught me to do just that. And then I went to the hospital.
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