Kindness Results

Once people feel nourished and refreshed, they cannot help but be kind; just so, the world aches for the generosity of a well-rested people.
Wayne Muller

Relationship

Compassion is not a relationship between the healer and the wounded. It's a relationship between equals. Only when we know our own darkness well can we be present with the darkness of others. Compassion becomes real when we recognize our shared humanity.
Pema Chödrön

What I Know For Sure

I love Oprah's writing on what she knows for sure. Anne Lamott has done something similar so I decided to make my own list.

1-If you are growing, your questions and doubts will increase as you get older, not get less. Your ideas can be pretty drastically changed from what they were decades before.

2-The nicest people to be around are those who don't believe in absolutes.

3-Time you enjoy wasting is never wasted.

4-Laughter is healing.

5-True friends help you feel good about life.

6-Healthy pleasure seeking and avoidance of unhealthy pain is the basis of a life well lived.

7-One of the highest pleasures in life is to know you had a hand in leaving the world a better place. Particularly leaving the next generation as good and decent and moral as possible. 

8-What works for one person does not work for everyone. See #2.

9-If something works for someone and causes no harm, let them be!

10-Everyone's world, whether they admit it or not, revolves around their pursuit of #6.

11-People have a happiness set point. I don't know how that set point is set, but I am pretty sure of it.

12-Your definition of joy will change throughout life. At one point it may require excitement, at another point it may be all about contentment.

13-Parenting is one of the most important jobs in the world. Done well it could change the world. This does not imply everyone should be parents.

14-Intention is huge. Give people the benefit of the doubt when it comes to intention unless they show a pattern that is clear.

15-Unconditional love is not always healthy.

16-Setting your own boundaries is how you own your own life.

17- What I know for sure, I don't really know for sure.