My idle talk

Kindness is almost always bigger when it is received than when it is given. What may be a small thing for you to offer can make a tremendous difference to those who receive it.

Kindness vastly increases the effectiveness of your efforts. Even a small kindness can bring a big result. And a truly ambitious kindness can change the world. Kindness multiplies itself in a way that seems almost magical.

Those whose lives are filled with richness are those who know and understand the value of genuine kindness. Kindness is not a difficult thing to grasp or to bring about, and is freely available to all who wish to practice it.

Every day you come across numerous opportunities for kindness. Each one of them is brimming with a value more precious than gold.

Avail yourself of those opportunities to spread kindness. And know the special magic that kindness brings.

You do not know for sure what will happen in the next hour, the next day, the next week or year. Yet you can imagine, and when you do, it pays to imagine the very best.

No, your imagination by itself does not make it so. But it can certainly line up many factors in your favor.

The more you imagine your most desired and treasured scenario, the more clearly you can visualize the actual details. And the details are important, for they provide specific goals upon which you can focus.

When you can clearly see yourself being there, you can see much more clearly how to get there. You can imagine the path to your dreams, then start to actually walk it.

Imagining a bright and shining future can serve to draw you toward such a state. So fill that imagined future with whatever you treasure most.

Play an active role in your own future. Imagine with passion and detail how you’d most like it to be.

You spend much of your day striving for more, and yet you already have so much. Spend some time enjoying it.

Enjoyment takes little or no effort, and doesn’t have to detract from what you’re doing. In fact, enjoyment will add real value to all your efforts.

Enjoyment takes no special skills or training. All you need is the intention to enjoy where you are, and suddenly you’re doing it. Focus not on the problems. Focus on how fortunate you are to be here, able to make a positive contribution.

The next time you’re in a situation that you normally would find annoying, frustrating, or dreary, decide that you will enjoy yourself. Put a smile on your face with a lightness in your spirit, and enjoy being you, simply because you’ve decided to do so.

A moment lived with enjoyment can bring hundreds of times more value than a moment spent in dismay. Enjoy life’s richness and there will be so much more.

You have just now arrived at this moment. Whatever may have brought you here is now yours to use in moving forward.

Perhaps the journey has been going well. If so, expand on what you’ve already found to work so well for you.

Or perhaps there have lately been more downs than ups. If so, then take that knowledge of what doesn’t work and use it to find what does.

You cannot change what has already happened. Yet no matter what it may have been, you can take something positive and valuable from all of it.

Hold on to the love, the laughter and the lessons. Let go of the disappointments, setbacks and regrets.

Today is a new day, and that gives you the chance to make something new and positive out of whatever you already have. Make every reason a reason to move forward, and you’ll find yourself doing just that.

When it seems that you’re overwhelmed with problems, pick just one and go to work on it. Suddenly the momentum will shift in your favor.

When you feel helpless to make a difference, stand up and take just one small step forward. And you’ll discover that you can indeed make a difference.

You’re not going to solve all the problems of the world before bedtime. Yet you can take many positive, productive steps in that direction.

It sure beats sitting around worrying about how bad things are. All the worrying in the world cannot equal the power of just one positive step.

Once you take that one step forward, you’ll find yourself wanting to do it again and again. Just one step can ignite your passion, and there’s no telling how far that will take you.

When you feel that there’s no use in making the effort, that’s precisely the time when even the smallest effort can make an enormous positive difference. Commit to taking just one step, and feel how great it can be.

"I know in my heart that man is good.  That what is right will always eventually triumph.  And there’s purpose and worth to each and every life."           -- Ronald Reagan

Life is difficult, challenging and painful at times. Yet at its very core, life is undeniably good.

The world is ripe with injustice and tragedy. Yet goodness always finds a way to be where it is needed most.

What is wrong, what is false, can often seem powerful and compelling. Yet eventually each falsehood consumes itself, collapsing under the burden of its own lies and inconsistencies. And life’s goodness not only endures. It grows stronger and more solidly entrenched as it survives each passing challenge.

Often life’s purpose seems to get buried beneath the confusion and the complexities, the distractions and the pressing demands. And yet, through it all, that purpose patiently remains, ready at any moment to be lived and fulfilled.

Celebrate, respect, enjoy, give to and make the most of life. It is a gift more precious, more positively powerful than anyone can imagine.