Don’t watch or read the news unless you can do so without reaction. (A challenge for me.)
People are good. My sister-in-law suffered a stroke. She’s only 50. We put up a GoFundMe and they received THREE times their goal.
A ten-year-old boy in our community lost his father to Covid. I collected money among our teachers and their network brought in $1,000 in two days. It’s still growing!
People are good. Remember that. Be the change you seek. Make effort for good.
Its not about the money, its about adding value and bringing something to the table.
Peter Sage
There are a lot of mixed signals in our culture about money. One fallacy is that you have to be dishonest or mean to be rich. Another is that your self-worth is linked to your income. Together, this creates a heartless, soulless society. Scary, to say the least.
Mr. Sage once said, “Chasing money is like chasing your tail, it’s never going to happen, because you have to pursue adding value, not money in and of itself.”
I believe that if you pursue something that helps others, the money will follow. We all have tools to self-empower and prosper.
We just need to add value to society with those tools.
When I was in fourth grade, I went rollerskating every Friday night. Every Friday night. My mom dropped my sister, brother and me to the rink and left for a couple hours and then picked us up. Sometimes, she stayed and waited, hand bag slung over her arm, watching with worry. (Thanks, mom!) After awhile, my sister and brother didn’t want to go, so I’d be dropped off alone. When I first started, I fell. A lot. I held onto the walls and fell and got back up. Pretty quickly, I gained my balance and before you know it, I was the fastest skater out there. I couldn’t get enough of it. Overhead, we had the disco ball, the strobe lights, the BeeGees! It doesn’t get much better than that, people!
I still go rollerskating now, four decades later. My daughters won’t go. They don’t enjoy it. Neither does my husband. So, once again, I skate alone. I go hard for an hour and then I go home.
I went today and many kids were using this, in record numbers:
It’s called a “skatemate”.
One boy using a skatemate fell and his dad ran out on the rink (with shoes on) and picked his son up. He ran behind him, pushed him gently to give him a bit of acceleration and then he left the floor. Not much later, his son would fall again. Out came dad, running to pick his son up. Mind you, his son was about 9, probably a fourth grader. I was impressed by the father’s sprint, his unwavering attention to his son and his intention. Clearly, he cared. But maybe he cared too much about the wrong thing.
I’m pretty sure his son is going to take a long time to learn how to rollerskate. I mean, what with the physical crutch of the skatemate and then the mental crutch of being constantly rescued, he doesn’t get to practice much.
Learning often necessitates frustration, time and yes, pain. But the rewards are well worth it.
There’s a lot of bad news out there. The splash page of CNN.com, MSNBC.com and NYTimes.com read like the eve of Armageddon.
But there is also a lot of good news. News you don’t hear. Somebody rescued a dog today. Another person volunteered at a soup kitchen. Several students volunteered at a school and welcomed new students, serving them pizza today.
There is a lot of good out there.
And the BEST news: YOU have control of what you read and hear and DO.
Don’t watch the news. Don’t read it.
Make it.
Surround yourself with positive people. And help someone today.
Kismet 