Hi Folks:
We are 8 years old today! Wow… Whodathunkit? Well, we did, one day and one post at a time. So far we’ve posted 549 blog posts (including this one) and 138 pages on a variety of subjects, and we’re just getting warmed up! Those 138 pages include 50 of our short stories (and how many have you read? 🙂 ) We’re certainly not alone in our celebrations, either. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was first printed 152 years ago, this month!
How far down the rabbit hole are you willing to go?
In a world that often seems polarized, today we want to celebrate two words that are most often misunderstood: respect and competition.
We use respect as a stick, and wield it over others. Respect your elders, respect your boss, show some respect for ___…
Respect isn’t external, it’s internal. Re-spect: literally to look twice. To live with awareness of your ideas and your choices not because someone else told you that it was necessary but because, after giving it careful thought it makes sense to you. It’s about action, not re-action. Respect is the essence of life, to be true to one’s self.
Competition has an equally bad and equally undeserved reputation. We think of competition as some twisted version of Darwin’s theory – survival of the fittest (Darwin never actually said that by the way, but that’s another story).
We start instead with the Latin word competere: to strive together. One does not compete against anyone. To compete with someone is to seek the best in yourself AND to encourage the best in those around you.
FEAR can seem a powerful voice, but fear is just an acronym:
False
Expectations
Actualizing
Reality
(author unknown, but appreciated)
So, in closing out today’s post we want you to join us in celebrating kindness. Here are a few places to get you started:
- Good News Network
- Ripple Kindness Project
- Happy News
- Random Acts of Kindness Foundation
- Inspire Media
- Blind Trust Project
- The Nicest Place on the Internet
- SoulPancake
- amy krouse rosenthal (Amy is no longer with us, but she embodied this every day)
- And of course, our own Free Hugs section!
Remember to hug someone you love today. Or a stranger. Or, preferably, both!!
Hugs,
M&M
Congrats cousins!!!! Hugs from Della
Thanks! Hugs back!!
Absolutely love this post and congratulations for all that time well spent! I have to admit, I haven't gotten to read the stories… but now I know I need to. I have thoroughly enjoyed your posts and hope for many, many more… so keep them coming. Thank you also for the wonderful reminder. I have always been thought of as strange, because I believe that we should help each other strive together. So glad to see I'm not the only "strange" one.
Congrats!
They’re not going anywhere, although we do need to post more of Marcia’s stories. “We have so much time and so little to do. Strike that, reverse it.” (Gene Wilder, Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory).
Hugs,
M&M