In the last 3 posts on manners, we learned where manners matter most and how they matter. I hope these have inspired you to take a look around you to see in what small ways you can make a difference in your environment.
We’re not all meant to stand on the big stage and make sweeping decisions for all humanity or even regionally. Most of us are meant to live and share our lives on a local level; in our communities or maybe just in our own neighborhood. All acts of love and kindness, large or small, can have a far-reaching impact on our world.
Imagine how one small act of kindness you offer to a single individual can grow by that individual paying the kindness forward to another. Then that one pays it forward to another and then another until one day it touches someone who is on the world stage with a broad influence who can then pay it forward to millions. And it all started with the flapping of a small butterfly’s wings in the act you delivered to one other life.
If we all behaved in a way where we thought our every kindness mattered to the world, it wouldn’t take long for our world to become a far, far better world to live in—for everyone!
I’m a big believer in Karma, or Biblically speaking, “Doing unto others as you would have them do unto you.” What comes around goes around—but not always in ways we hope for or expect. But it does return. I believe my life is better for having made a conscious choice to show small kindnesses that cost me nothing materially, but that profit me richly in the joy of giving.
Manners matter. Where manners matter most is on the inside of the giver as well as on the inside of the receiver. The content or the demonstration is superfluous. WE are ALL the benefactors of our good behavior. Gratitude is Attitude in Action. Good manners are the revelation of our inner beauty, where it matters most.
Like it or not YOUR manners matter. Make them matter MOST by doing good for someone else as well as yourself.
My hope is that you will be inspired to join me in my quest to practice good manners in all things, in all places, in every way possible, and to everyone you meet, every day!
