I think that I have always known that quality is most often times more important than quantity. This can be said for so many things in life, possessions, the words we say, and even the friends we keep. As a child I was quick to figure out that if you said less and listened more, you were most certainly going to learn more, sometimes more than the adults around you intended. I think this may have not been due to some heightened level of intelligence on my part, but more so to the fact that I was shy. Because of this shyness I never had a great amount of friends, and still, in fact, keep my circle of friends (true friends, not acquaintances or people I see fairly often by chance) on the smaller side. What I can say about those that I consider to be my true friends however is that I can count of them to be there for me when I need them and to be supportive of me. I, in turn, expect that I will provide the same comforts to them.
 
Now that I am getting older and, hopefully, a little wiser, I am realizing that the things that my friends provide to me and I provide to them should not necessarily be kept so close to one’s self that they cannot benefit a wider span of humans. Obviously, most of us do not have the time to provide everyone with the same level of attention as we do our friends. This is not quite what I mean. What I do mean, and what my thick-skulled brain is just starting to fully embrace, is that it is much more worthwhile to try and do good rather than do “bad” or nothing at all.
 
For instance, so many among us are quick to speak poorly of others for no reason at all other than making one’s self feel better. I don’t care if the given excuse is, “I don’t like them,” or “they don’t deserve anything better,” etc. it is so much more easy to say nothing or say something kind instead, especially if you have the opportunity to speak with that person, in person.
 
What I am trying to say here, and might be struggling with, is that it takes the same amount of time to possibly make someone’s day as it would to make them feel better. Additionally, it takes the same amount of time to defend a person that another is speaking poorly of as it would to join in the banter and be a “co-basher.” Of course, speaking right instead of wrong (in the negative) may start a debate which will ultimately take more time than speaking wrong, but is it not worth it?
 
So, the thing is this, I have never been perfect nor ever claimed to be so. I have said many, many bad things about and to, many, many people. Now I find a real heartwarming challenge in doing just the opposite and taking a few minutes of my time to make someone feel better or try and set someone straight who is not being kind. Most of you who read this are probably lightyears ahead of me in intelligence and maturity and know all that I have written about here, but if you are not, I would ask that you give it a try. Try to be kind to all that you meet or know! Try taking the time to make somebody who you know, or maybe even don’t know, feel better (encouragement) about something, anything! If you find yourself trying this, or even if this is something that you regularly do, I challenge you to take the time to let it sink in to your heart and your brain and relish it. I am not suggesting that you make it a self-serving task that you perform for personal satisfaction, but rather, that you digest the good you provide to others and let it reflect and grow within you. Maybe I am a bit crazy but I have been trying this as of late and it only makes me want to do it more and to make it the normalcy or my personality and not something that I have to give so much thought to make happen.  
 
Shaun