I Want to Give You a Kiss

A friend of mine got this as a gift from that special someone today.  Nothing like 16 oz. of pure love wrapped in gold foil, ya' know what I mean?

Giant Hersey's Kisses Say Love Like Nothing Else.

I can't really give you a giant Hershey's Kiss but pause with me and think about having one.  It'll make you smile.

Strange Friends

So I was scanning the news today; more people dead, more people hating each other, when I happened on this little jewel.  I'd seen it before but it still make me smile.  I'm not sure the dog is into it exactly but he does treat the the bird more decently than most humans treat each other.  Nice.

Invest in Love

Maybe I'm feeling a little mushy tonight but this song really struck me.  How many times do we do hurtful things in the name of love rather than remembering Dr. King's words, "Hate can not drive out hate any more than dark can not drive out dark.  Only light can do that."

My advice, think something nice about the person who hurts you the most.  Don't give them permission to hurt you, just remember that lowering yourself into anger too will only increase the world's problems.  Taking in and responding with a compassionate, powerful response may not be quicker but boy do you feel better when you settle down for the night.  

Finding Peace Within Yourself

It sort of makes sense to me that we're not going to do very good at getting along with each other until we can get along with ourselves.  This guy right here is my favorite how to get along with yourself guy.  Enjoy.

Plus Eckhart is just funny.  I love to listen to him.  

The No Nitpicking Challenge

So I read this article today  http://www.webmd.com/sex-relationships/guide/happy-marriage-no-nitpicking
It's about marriage and deals with the pointlessness of nitpicking.

As I was reading, I found myself wondering about how often I "nitpick" the people around me needlessly.  Maybe it's a little hard for me to realize that I nitpick strangers.  I'm thinking about it like this, how often do I think to myself, "Well that guy doesn't know how to drive," or "oh my God, that ladies dress looks like a cereal box?"   If nitpicking breeds bad love between married people, is it negatively effecting my relationship with the world?   I think incessant nipping at the world around me is probably pretty unnoticed by the world but really keeps my head jammed full of trashy thoughts.

I'm offering myself this challenge:  Tomorrow I will not nitpick at anyone for any reason.  I will totally let  people be people without my internal dialog.  I don't know if I can do it, but setting it as a goal for the day should help me see how much I'm doing it and help me see how much negative chatter I'm feeding myself.

Want to join me?  Just one day?  Can you do it?  No nitpicking even in your mind?  I think it's going to be harder than I think it's going to be.

Never Too Late To Start Over

Now here's some good advice.  I don't think you will every meet an unhappy angry person who still thinks they've got a lot of opportunity in front of them

I had to restart my life so many times that I eventually decided that starting over is neither beginning nor ending but just another day in the much larger cycle that is my life.   When you fail there's always room to try something new.

You Can Always Start Over

How To Be Nice to People: The Links Page

So I'd never really thought about being nice as a science or something that you'd study somewhere but it turns out that a lot of people have put a lot of thought into just what it is to be nice and how to do it.  Here are some links I found hunting around this morning.

1.  Wikihow covers everything, literally!  Here's there 16 point process for being nice to people.

2.  Wise bread has got 13 tips on how to be nice.  All good ideas!

3.  I'm not sure where this list comes from but it says it's 38 ways to be nice out of a 48 item original list.

4.  I love Tiny Buddha, their advice this morning is 4 ways to be nice when you don't feel like being nice. Good work Tiny Buddha!  Being nice when you don't feel like it it a biggie!

5.  Here's a whole hub over on Hub Pages on how to be nice.

6.  This is forum discussion about how to be nice to an annoying person.  it's not really a list of how to be nice but I'm including it because one commenter really cracked me up.  They're advice was, "Just don't be a dick."  Straight, to the point, easy to follow.  I'm writing it down.

And finally, here's yoga instructor Tara Stiles pointing out the benefits of being nice to people and offering a kindness.  I'm taking her challenge.