TheWRITEaddiction.com

A few weeks ago, I admitted to you all that I talk to myself. (I even included a Christopher Williams video for your viewing pleasure.) Today, I have another confession.  I talk to other people.  Admittedly, I do not talk to everybody.  My circle is pretty small, but ever so often I do venture outside of my bubble and converse (conversate is not a word, people!) with others.

There are a few people I talk to everyday.  My poor children have to endure my questions from the second they climb in the car after school. ” How was your day?  What did you eat for lunch?  What was the most exciting thing that happened today?”  I want my babies to know that I care about the details of their days.  Not all of our conversations are in the form of interviews, though.  I try to spend at least a little time each day telling them how important  they are to me.  I often say to each of them that they are brilliant and beautiful, and that I believe in them.  (I like alliteration.)

I think it’s natural to affirm the best things about those closest to us.  The challenge lies in affirming the good in people we are not particularly close too.

“Grace is doing what’s right and proper. Softening yourself to someone else’s life.  Acknowledging the spirit of another person, even if you’re not sure they have one.”

Valerie Wilson Wesley in Playing My Mother’s Blues

I put this quote at the end of all of my emails. (I realize now that it’s ironic since most of my vitriolic conversations occur through that particular medium.) It’s supposed to remind me that I should find the good in people.  Even the ones I’m fighting with over email.

So there’s your challenge for the week. Affirm the good in someone outside of your immediate circle.  Extend to someone else the grace you’ve received.

Mama Radford