What if … You Heard the Echo of a Kind Word?

“Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly end­less.”
Mother Teresa

What if … you were con­tem­plat­ing giv­ing up blogging?

What if … writ­ing was feel­ing, for you, like a lonely and iso­lat­ing endeavor?

What if … you were feel­ing dis­cour­aged because the folks who claimed to share your core val­ues and beliefs weren’t show­ing you much “blog love” as a result of your inabil­ity and unwill­ing­ness to be part of con­ven­tional group-think?

What if … you were sorely in need of moti­va­tion to keep writ­ing about your beliefs and convictions?

What if … at the very moment you planned to draft your farewell blog post, you logged on to find that you had received this lovely award?

What if … you were so over­come by the kind words of the per­son who bestowed that award upon you that it took you a good while to regain your composure?

What if … you found your­self utterly hum­bled by the ratio­nale expressed by the per­son who bestowed that award upon you?

What if … you felt ashamed for hav­ing thrown your­self a pity party about your blog­ging endeavors?

What if … the heart­felt expres­sion of appre­ci­a­tion from the per­son who bestowed the award upon you reminded you that for every action there is a reac­tion … even though we may never be aware of or informed about it?

What if … stated dif­fer­ently, receipt of the award restored to your con­scious aware­ness an appre­ci­a­tion of the fact that our actions can have a far-reaching and last­ing impact — good or bad — upon other peo­ple, even though we may never learn about it?

What if … such gen­er­ous recog­ni­tion put a smile on your face for sev­eral days running?

What if … you didn’t tell any­one why you were smil­ing because it was such deli­cious fun to let them won­der what you were so happy about?

What if … those few kind words echoed and rever­ber­ated in your heart and mind for a long time after they were com­mu­ni­cated to you?

What if … you did not believe in hap­pen­stance, coin­ci­dence or ran­dom events?

What if … the gen­er­ous encour­age­ment of the per­son who bestowed the award upon you con­firmed yet again your belief in the love and wis­dom of the Divine Creator?

What if … receipt of that lovely award affirmed anew your belief that the Spirit uses other peo­ple to inspire us in sur­pris­ing and unex­pected ways … when we most need to be lifted up?

I was deeply touched, hum­bled, awed, and val­i­dated when Rev­erend Maitri Libel­lule wrote to say that she had hon­ored my work. She said, in part:

I thank you for being there and writ­ing the brave truth, with tol­er­ance and loving-kindness. This means more to me than you will ever know. We need to build bridges, not walls. You are doing that.

…

And yes, we can feel as though we were oper­at­ing in a void, and yet we never know how many we’ve touched.

…

I have been doing what I do, online, now for 10 years. You’ve no idea how often I felt I was just a whis­per on the wind in cyber-land and how no one prob­a­bly heard me and cared and then I’d get an amaz­ing e-mail from some­one, just at the right time, that made it all worth­while and helped me keep going.

The light that shines through Rev­erend Maitri again helped me find my way in a sea of dark­ness and her kind words will echo end­lessly, com­pelling me to keep search­ing for and writ­ing about the truth, as I per­ceive and under­stand it.

Thank you, Rev­erend Maitri, for being an instru­men­tal­ity of peace, tol­er­ance, under­stand­ing and … com­pas­sion. You are a bless­ing to me … and the entire blogosphere.

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