Can We Talk 2

Inspiring Quote

Prompt: What is your favorite or most thought provoking quote from a book you've read? Why?

         I will butcher the quote, but I won't be able to find it on my e-reader. In the book, Have You Seen LLuis Velez, the old lady says the world is about 50% terrible and 50% wonderful. Sometimes terrible seems to pile up on us and fills our world or our family's. That's when we have to do our best to do as much wonderful as possible.

         It is a hard task to fulfill. If you've just lost a friend or relative, or you lost your job and have bills to pay, or you've been told that a close friend has cancer, how can you even think of something wonderful? But that is when you need to do or say something wonderful. When you feel at your worst, you need to hold the door for someone else, or compliment a child you don't know. Give someone else the right of way at an intersection. Smile at an elderly person. It's a good time to go through the closet or the dresser and donate clothes you don't use any longer. Or visit an older aunt you haven't seen in a year or more.

         By paying it forward, you may influence others or set off a chain of events that will offset the terrible eventually. Perhaps the only thing that will change is your own attitude. Seeing that others are less fortunate or more desperate will help you put things in perspective. Or maybe you'll get more in return than you gave. There are no guarantees. You might have to perform five or six good deeds before you get any "return". In fact, I now recall C. S. Lewis wrote that you should be charitable even if you don't feel charitable. Act first, feelings will come later.

         I'm not saying that anyone should hide his head in the sand or refuse to face reality. I am saying don't become defeated by drowning in fear or self-pity. Rise above it, if only one minute at a time.