Spread Your Beauty

If you watch the news long enough, you will see everything from war to theft to murder. Human nature has proven to be very brutal over the generations. Still, it never ceases to amaze me at the horrible acts people are capable of taking on each other. If we focus on all the negative in the world, it can be very overwhelming indeed. It is at those times, I look at the world and wonder how we got to this point of hatred and chaos. I think, how can us average people make a difference? It seems like we can’t when you look at the big picture. However, I feel like good people can make a difference and it is our duty to do so.

Of course, not all of our good deeds will cure cancer or save a child from a burning building. But a good deed is still good nonetheless. Is it not? The best way I can look at it is in small pieces. Kind of like a huge intimidating project where we make an outline of steps for progress. I certainly don’t know all the steps to fix all the evil in the world (sorry, I wish I did), but, I can try to do my part. And at the simplest of steps, I can be kind.

I look at kindness as a flower. Sure, some flowers are more amazing and elegant while others are simple and pretty. Regardless, each flower has benefits from beauty to pollination to a source of food or medicine. So if each of us average people across the world could be a flower, we could create a garden like Henry Wadsworth Longfellow said years ago. “Kind hearts are the gardens, kind thoughts the roots, kind words are the flowers, kind deeds are the fruits. Take care of your garden and keep out the weeds…”

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From the simplest of things, we can make a difference, or so I like to believe. It is basically the ‘Pay it Forward” movement going around. It makes sense. If we all were caring of others and spoke with love in respect on a daily basis, it could be like a vine that spreads. First, it is just a few leaves on a fence or at the base of the barn. But with some nurturing, it will spread. Just think about when someone was kind to you. It touched you, moved you. You remember their actions and it really meant something to you. Their kindness during your moment of need was like the water to help you grow according to Debasish Mridha. “Wounds are the fertile ground where flowers of kindness and wisdom will grow and thrive.”

When we are helped when we are down, it gives us hope in people. They can’t all be bad right? So we return their kindness with our own. We spread the seeds of love and hope to others with the hope that they in turn will do the same. “Flowers don’t bloom where no seeds have been planted. If you want kindness, be kind. If you want acceptance, be accepting. If you want encouragement, be encouraging. If you want forgiveness, be forgiving. If you want love, be loving. If you want respect, be respectful. We should not expect from others what we fail to give to them,” said Tom Krause.

Krause said that perfectly. Now, we all just need to figure out what kind of flower we can be. Pick one, any one. They all have a role. And if we all do it together, our garden can’t help but grow and be beautiful.

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For Sally D’s Mobile Photography Challenge ~ Macro Photography.

For Sally’s Challenge, I used my iPhone photos and found a topic I could connect them with.

For Dungeon Prompts ~ Stepping Out of Your Comfort Zone.

For The Seeker’s Dungeon’s challenge, I wanted to try a call to action, an effort to compel people to be somewhat different. This was a bit of reach for me. I give my opinions from time to time, but they generally don’t come across this way. So, this was a bit out of my comfort zone and took me longer to write.

Feel free to comment on either element/challenge of this post and make sure you go to the hosts of these different challenges to check them out.