Love and Kindness

Teen role model

Backstory

I was so impressed when I met this young lady. She had started a program for teens to mentor younger children and she was at the Rotary Club meeting to tell us about it. So poised, so self confident. We stayed and talked, after the meeting. I decided to introduce her to you.

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Teen Role Model – #638

A high school senior was telling me recently about the responsibilities she feels being a role model in school. This young lady is her class president. She is an officer in Future Farmers of America, a leader in 4H.

She said that as she built up these credentials, her mother warned her, “There is always someone watching.” She said that thought guides her with the realization that she is a role model.

Fellow students see her lead and achieve. They would also see if she did wrong.

When she is tempted to gossip or experiment wrongly, she considers how she would feel if someone was watching and was led to do likewise, following her bad example. She accepts responsibility for the image she projects.

Obviously she was brought up in a home where the right values were stressed.

And she is determined to uphold those values, not just in public, but in private.

In this age of bullying and blame, it is truly refreshing to hear this young lady standing straight.

Hats off to the millions of young adults who stay the course and do the right thing.

You don’t hear about them often enough. They are out there, doing good and being kind. As they become leaders, our future is in good hands.

P.S.

The young lady received a Rotary Club scholarship. It was just one of many acknowledgements and awards she accumulated before leaving high school. We’ll be watching her college adventures for more leadership. She is prone to help make the world a better place.

[Show #638]

What Are You Waiting For?

Backstory

It didn’t happen just like that. There was a lot leading up to it. Joan had been in the presence of my fiancé and me for years – on vacations, on outings and at home. She was a careful observer. Now, it turns out, she was about to become a tentative adviser as well.

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What Are You Waiting For? – #639

What are you waiting for? That’s what Joan asked me. She had sat me down and said we had to have a serious talk. Bill and I had been engaged for some eight years. When I accepted his engagement ring, we both considered ourselves committed, one to the other. And that was that.

But Joan, who had been married for decades, pointed out that there is a difference.

She pointed out that my fiancé had never been married. She believed he would thrive in the status of being husband to a wife he loved. She wisely pointed out that we were not getting any younger. But I just saw no need for a big event and a lot of hoopla and spending money and bothering people to come together to celebrate. At our age, it seemed anti-climactic.

That’s when she took my hand and gave me her best advice. She said, “You are talking about the wedding. I am talking about being married. It’s two very different things.”

She pointed out that every day that passed was a day that we were not enjoying the definitive commitment, the ultimate allegiance. She said we owed it to each other to experience that. She strongly advised that I allow Bill to put the other ring on it.

I took to heart, everything she said. And decided she was right.

P.S.

Joan had said that seeing Bill happily married was on her bucket list – something she wanted to see happen before her time was up. She had known him for some 30 years. Long before I was on the scene. She was so pleased to check that off her bucket list. Another item on the list was a trip to Tuscany. She marked that one off too. She died in her sleep, the day after her return.

[Show #639]

Age of Maturity

Backstory

What is life all about? Writing the Consider This shows, I think about that. I watch out for what others are saying; sometimes the sages, sometimes wise old folks, sometimes innocent youngsters. One of my favorite musers of life is poet and memoirist Maya Angelou. You will find her quoted in this week’s story.

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Age of Maturity – #635

I’ve been trying to figure out if I have reached the age of maturity. What is that age? I believe it to be the point at which one is still young enough to perform, but is much more resourceful.

In the eyes of youth, there glows a flame. In the eyes of maturity, there shines a light. It’s a status earned by the baby boomers. Seems to apply to folks in their sixties and seventies who still have the vigor, if not the stamina. We are more accepting, less relentless. You might say we go from passion to compassion.

When you’re past 60, there are fewer things that we think are absurd. We’ve seen it all – or so we think – until the next mind-blowing occurrence reminds us that we are still in the game.

One thing we have learned for sure – nothing passes by as quickly as the years.

Things change as time passes.

Young people travel in groups; adults travel in pairs; old people walk alone.

The point of it all is to LIVE those years, not just accumulate them.

I like the way Maya Angelou put it. She said, “My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.”

P.S.

Maya Angelou was quoted in this week’s story. Here is another of her quotes that obviously comes from a state of delightful maturity. She said, I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. Amen.

[Show #635]

Teacher Krista

Backstory

We were all enthralled when Krista shared her adventures as a new teacher. Her biggest memory of her young students – They always had sticky hands! Besides the jokes and cute stories, a very distinct edge could be seen. Here was a young woman who was going to make a difference in the lives of the students she taught. May I share with you, the story of who inspired her.

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Teacher Krista – #653

Today our story is about a young teacher, on the last day of her first teaching assignment. I sincerely hope that her words bring back memories for you, of a beloved teacher somewhere in your past.

Krista wrote – “Today felt a lot like the last day of seventh grade. Only this time, I got to be on the teacher end.

“In seventh grade, my teacher, Mr. Heitmann, created a classroom community that I never wanted to leave. I always hoped that one day I would be able to do that for my students.

Today, between their tears and mine,I realized that I do have the ability to create that classroom community. It’s within my power to do so.”

Krista went on to describe her emotional exit and the goodbyes and selfies; the promises to be good, to be smart, to be special. You could just see the little children gathered about, reaching out for a last touch or hug or whisper, promising to remember always.

Krista concluded her story by sharing, “I left my students with a quote of Mr. Heitmann. It’s what he said to my seventh grade class, some ten years ago –

‘Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.’ “

Thank goodness the world has teachers like Mr. Heitmann, and now, Miz Krista.

P.S.

Krista will leave soon to teach in another land across the sea. How fortunate are the students who will be touched by her and inspired by her words and her example. The world needs all the Kristas it can get.

[Show #653]

Losing a Friend

Backstory

I was a busy young executive working my way up the ladder. Landed a VP job in Washington, DC and I was on my way! Needed some help though; someone stable in the office to keep things moving and wrap them in a bow at the end. Someone who could keep pace with my busy schedule and keep me pointed in the right direction. Someone who would prevent me from being swept away with too many priorities or my own ego. Turns out she was just the one to do that.

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Losing a Friend – #649

We had worked together, years and year ago. When I left our mutual employment, we maintained the friendship from a distance. We’d catch up, a couple of times a year and it was like we had talked just the day before.

So her call today was most welcome. But her voice, somehow, was different. Just as joyful, but somehow serious as well.

“I am dying,” she told me. Matter of factly, straight forward. No embellishment. A simple statement.

I knew she was battling one of those unfair and deadly diseases. But they had kept it at bay; until now.

“I’m not afraid,” she told me. “I’ve done right during my life, I know the Lord, and I am ready”. She was headed to hospice.

My first thought was that I had to go and see her. Then I thought better of it.

We had not been in the same room together in 32 years. I had an image of this tiny, exuberant blonde lady with the beautiful blue eyes.

The right direction now was to let us both keep our images of our young and eager selves.

There are lots more phone calls. They get more difficult as the days roll by. She has less stamina and coherence. But here we are together, keeping our friendship fresh and bright, right to the last day.

On one phone call, when we say goodbye, it will be goodbye for good.

P.S.

It happened today. Something occurred and my first thought was that i had to share it with my phone friend. She would understand and laugh with me. Oh yes, I remembered, she can’t do that anymore. She is all bundled up in my warm memories of the time we shared, and I can still imagine her laughing with me. So I shared the incident with her anyway, silently, and laughed out loud, for both of us.

[Show #649]

Toy Library

Backstory

I could hardly walk through the room, for all the toys spread around. Looking at the broken plastic pieces, I could just imagine how much all this cost. But there was so much; it was overpowering. How best to organize toys and help children to appreciate them? We explore all that in this week’s story.

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Toy Library – #346

Have you ever counted the toys your kids have? A well-known parenting guru suggests that the overabundance of toys possessed by kids today is not a blessing. He claims that an average American child has 150 toys. Think what that means in a family with 3 or 4 kids.

Overstimulation from the media, video games and noisy toys are creating chaos. The way out is to weed out your kids’ stuff.

Reduce the chaos and introduce calm. Give away outgrown toys: discard broken ones and pack a lot of the rest away.

There are coaches who get paid to come into a home and reduce the abundance. They remove as much as 75% of the children’s clothes and toys. You can do the same thing. That will reduce the clutter.

Then introduce the calm. Set up a schedule for watching TV or playing video games, rather than having both run 24/7 at will. Get rid of noisy, flashing toys. They actually do the playing for the child. Instead, provide toys that challenge the child’s imagination.

Create a veritable library of toys, to be checked out, played with In those periods of calm you created, and returned. Sounds like quite an improvement.

P.S.

Toys Are Us just went out of business. One analyst said it was because kids would rather watch a YouTube video of kids playing, than play themselves. Playing is how we learned to imagine: how we learned to treat others; how we learned about the consequences of making a bad decision. How shall we replace those experiences in today’s world of busy thumbs and digital screens?

[Show #346]

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