Notes in my pocket: It is not what we see with just our eyes that counts!

Notes in my pocket. Today's thought is have you looked around you, looked at people, and taken note of what they wear? I have looked at times in my life and judged people on how they were at that moment or how they looked. The older I get I realize we can all clean up really good but what matters is not what we wear so to speak but what is in our heart. In the passed year, I have taken the time to say to people that looked down how beautiful they looked, to look for a way to make someone smile. I have found that kindness comes from people you do not think it will come from. I know a lady who is a Buddhist and I used to always talk to her mom. She did not talk very good English but my goal was to make her smile. She stopped coming to where I work and I found out she died. Today her daughter found me and handed me a card with a note of how her mom liked coming to see me and how the gift inside, her mom would have wanted me to have. If I look through my own eyes, I see imperfection all around and I become very critical, but as I learn to take a step back and look through grace and God's eyes, I see that there are wonderful people just wanting to be loved, just wanting to hear a kind word. Are we really too busy to care, too busy to pass a light of hope onto another? As 2015 closes I ask you to carry in your heart a light that daily can be passed onto another to shine hope, a smile and love. If we can all do this each day and try at least try one act of kindness, the darkness in this world does not appear to be so dark and the light shines brighter. There is a story I made up for my children: this little girl was scared of the dark and her mummy said that the darkness wanted to come in from outside because it was lonely. See once the darkness came in, it could see the light and then darkness was no longer alone and it was transformed from dark to light and so it is with us. If we give a little hope, then the despair in our lives starts to go and we find hope in a new tomorrow. 2016 a year of darkness or light, of despair or hope: the choice is yours.