Regardless of how much we may wish, life is never going to be black and white, win or lose. Something always bleeds over. Always. While sometimes it may be good and other times bad it is my sincerest hope that each experience brings with it life lessons and blessings. So perhaps today is the perfect moment to start learning from each and every experience, be it positive or negative. Dare to do something great- dare to be great! 

“Dare to Be

When a new day begins, dare to smile gratefully.

When there is darkness, dare to be the first to shine a light.

When there is injustice, dare to be the first to condemn it.


When something seems difficult, dare to do it anyway.


When life seems to beat you down, dare to fight back.


When there seems to be no hope, dare to find some.

When you’re feeling tired, dare to keep going.


When times are tough, dare to be tougher.


When love hurts you, dare to love again.


When someone is hurting, dare to help them heal.


When another is lost, dare to help them find the way.


When a friend falls, dare to be the first to extend a hand.


When you cross paths with another, dare to make them smile.


When you feel great, dare to help someone else feel great too.


When the day has ended, dare to feel as you’ve done your best.


Dare to be the best you can –


At all times, Dare to be!” ― Steve Maraboli

“People are often unreasonable and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives. Be kind anyway. 
If you are honest, people may cheat you. Be honest anyway.
If you find happiness, people may be jealous. Be happy anyway.
The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough. Give your best anyway. 
For you see, in the end, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.” 
― Mother Teresa


As a follow up the above quote, I encourage you to watch the youtube video below. It would be 4 minutes and 30 seconds of your time well spent! Who knows, it might just change your life.

http://closeddoorsopenwindows.wordpress.com/2011/05/07/the-power-of-kindness/

Lisa Martinez's blog, "closed doors open windows" is truly inspirational. It's self-reflective nature inspires one to reflect and inadvertently poses many questions to the reader about their character; many of which do not have concrete answers. While Martinez published this post in May of 2011, the topic is still very much relevant- the power of kindness. Enjoy!

We are all familiar with the surprise we feel when a stranger acts wonderfully kind for no apparent reason and selflessly expects nothing in return. We describe these acts of kindness as random because we have become so out of touch with kindness in our daily lives.

Wouldn't it be serendipity if instead of shocking us, kindness was just 'regular', something we all shared and spread around freely, and that we all took time to celebrate along the way? Imagine a world where holding the door for the person behind you was a natural habit and expressing your gratitude in the form of a 'thank-you' was almost as frequent as breathing. 

What if we took each stumble as an opportunity to pledge more kindness? 

Can you envision the world with kindness abundant in and around us, where we are legitimately in the habit of being it, doing it, and experiencing kindness?

When we start to ask about kindness, we begin to believe in fostering it more, to the point where it manifests itself and becomes large and immeasurable.