If you’re following along, let me encourage you to read the prior post to understand this project better. But if you’re zooming through…
Truth #2: Those who love the ones we love have ripples into our daily lives
As mentioned in the previous post, I am not close and personal friends with over 500 people. In fact, some of them would consider themselves closer to my spouse or my children than to me. We might be ‘friends’ on Facebook more for the convenience of communicating than anything. However, I discovered a really interesting thing when I started writing to these people.
I realized that each person’s impact into the daily life of those I love is FAR greater than I had really given any thought.
The way you treat my loved ones casts a wider net in my daily life than it may at first appear. Maybe my loved ones told me stories about you. Maybe they laughed at a joke you told them. Maybe they told me a story about how you have been there for them in a great time of need. Whatever it was, when I got to your turn, I got the opportunity to realize that your kindness and concern for them impacted my life as well.
I cannot always be there to love on my family and close friends. My project helped me understand and appreciate the value of those who love them in the minutes when I am not there. You matter more to me than I even really knew.
We all carry baggage from our day home with us. A horrible boss. A tough commute. A lousy customer. It can come home with us and invade our day and our life. It can influence how we treat the ones we love, especially since we arrive home at the end of our day… and our patience. I often tell my husband that his job, as a mechanic, has to be the worst one. No one WANTS to see a mechanic. No one sees my spouse on their best days. But, there ARE those days, when someone was especially kind. When someone treated him to a meal or a smile or a good joke. When someone respected his opinion. There are THOSE days. And those days float with him from the office into our home. When I got to those names I realized something. What I say to others ALSO floats back into their home and the way they treat those closest to them. It can invade their thoughts. Our kindnesses, and our words, often extend far beyond our single act. They can ripple into homes across the world, if we can simply remember to carry them forward.
Even if I don’t know you well, the world is far more connected than we think. From now on, I’d like to take a deep breath and decide what kind of ripple I leave in it.
Losing Me 