April 5 , 2020 /

MAGNIFICENT SEVEN

Whether all in one sitting, or one for each day of the week, or one each week for 7 weeks, put them on and see what you can do with them.  And, what they might do for you as well as those around you.

1 –  GRACE    Think of an elegant blessing, one that you may have received that you can bestow upon another.  The gift of grace lifts us up so that we in turn may lift others.

2 –  GRATITUDE  Genuine thanksgiving for freedom of choice, for opportunities to give unselfishly and to exhibit behaviors that demonstrate recognition and appreciation.

3 –  COMPASSION  Going beyond sympathy to empathy and letting others know that you see them, you hear them and that you care about them.  Specific acts of kindness.

4 –  HELPING  Finding ways to lift and share the burdens that others endure, often suffering quietly or alone.

5 –  LISTENING  Paying attention to peoples’ stories, the willingness to hear what they are saying, their need to communicate and connect.

6 –  LEARNING  Gathering new information from different sources, seeing how to help apply new solutions to old problems.

7 –  LOVING  Embracing both yourself and others with heartfelt expressions of acceptance. In the words of Fred Rogers, “I like you just the way you are.”

You can expand these to include your own definition and understanding.  My intention is to help focus on some things that might  add to strengthening ourselves and our communities in these trying times.

Comments (2)

  1. I think that there are days that I wear one… or weeks but without the others, somehow it’s not enough. The other one that’s too often missing for me is patience. Working on it…

    This is one I’ll come back to, Gary. Thanks.

    Alli

  2. Thanks, Alli. We are all a work in progress, almost all of the time we decide to keep moving forward until one day we can’t. That’s why it’s essential that we keep working on it and ourselves as part of it. Take care, be well, stay safe although my hunch is that you are fairly well isolated where you are. Best to you and your family.

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