The hardest thing to do when I’m feeling down is the one thing I know will help me feel better. It’s not exercise or sleep or eating healthier meals.
It’s kindness.
I know when I’m at my worst, I have to get my eyes off myself and put them squarely on the needs of others.
It works. Every time.
But it doesn’t just work ... Read More
My friend’s father-in-law recently died. It came on suddenly. It wasn’t supposed to happen that way. They weren’t prepared. I wonder, when it comes to losing someone we love, if we’re ever really prepared.
The hole that’s left while we are mourning seems like an endless chasm, and yet it’s the perfect size for kindness. Kindness shown through phone calls, flowers, ... Read More
They say what goes around comes around. If you consistently treat others with kindness, you can expect to have a pretty big kindness bank account to draw from when life throws you a curveball.
I’ve seen it happen again and again in my own life, and so has Mary Derosier from Red Lake Falls, Minn., although she and her mom were ... Read More
Walt Disney once said, “The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.”
That works well for amusement parks, but it also works well in the realm of kindness.
Alicia Stewart is a mom who feels frustrated with the way girls sometimes treat each other. When she saw it happening in her daughter’s second-grade classroom, she decided to put ... Read More
I really should have kept a list of all the people who helped me during my battle with breast cancer. It would be filled with the names of family and friends who delivered meals and picked up kids and sent cards.
But it would also be filled with the names of strangers who helped me get through each day after my ... Read More
One of the great lessons cancer taught me was the importance of getting my thought-life in order.
There are way too many things in this world that could go wrong. If we allow ourselves to think whatever thought pops into our heads, we risk being dragged into a black hole of despair.
But how do we replace those negative thoughts with something ... Read More
“Whoa! People work this early in the morning?”
That was my first-grade son’s reaction as we passed a garbage truck recently at 5:30 a.m.
We were heading out on a family vacation. The men in the truck were hustling in the rain to pick up bin after bin of trash.
“Yes. And I’m grateful they do. How about you?” I responded.
That led to ... Read More
Every once in awhile, Saul and I play “Who would you most like to have dinner with?”
Jimmy Buffett is high on Saul’s list. Mother Teresa is high on mine. I imagine we’re both out of luck.
A little boy in Fargo will long remember a recent meal he got to share thanks to a side helping of kindness. His grandfather, Harvey ... Read More
Twenty years ago this month, people along the Red River in Minnesota, North Dakota and Southern Manitoba experienced the worst flood of the area since 1826.
Homes and businesses were destroyed. Lives were swept up in a torrent of emotional and financial ruin. An entire geographic area was collectively exhausted.
Yet, when the river finally returned to its banks, along with a ... Read More
At this very moment, if all has gone well, I am on an airplane with my three children heading back to Fargo.
It was the kindness of an event planner who first gave the idea wings, and the kindness of many other community members who made it take flight.
Saul and I lived in Fargo for 10 years before moving to Ohio, ... Read More
