Ray of Sunshine: Extend a Hand

Now, more than ever, seek to understand, show respect, and extend a hand of kindness to each other. We are more alike than different.

Blessings for your day and week. Spread sunshine. Be the light.

Ray of Sunshine: Try this Recipe

Recipe for Living Well

Equal parts of the following: Spread joy. Be loving and kind. Give generously. Give thanks. Embrace your inner wisdom. Seek to understand. Come from a place of respect. 

Blessings for your day and week. Spread sunshine. Be the light.

Ray of Sunshine: Lift a Hand

Lift a hand. Show kindness. Display compassion. During times of difficulty, love is the beacon to see us through.

Blessings for your day and week. Spread sunshine. Be the light.

Ray of Sunshine: Be a Rainbow

Be a rainbow in someone’s rainy day. Practice kindness and compassion.

Blessings for your day and week. Spread sunshine. Be the light.

Ray of Sunshine: Fill Your Heart with Love

Fill your mind and heart with love. The fruits of your efforts will make this world a better, kinder place.

Blessings for your day and week. Spread sunshine. Be the light.

Sunday Sunshine: Angels Among Us

There are angels among us everywhere. They don’t all have wings and halos or play harps or wear white robes. Angels come in the form of those who don’t make a lot of fanfare but whose actions demonstrate love. Angels can be found in our everyday encounters:

The person who sits with an elderly woman, holding her hand in times of fear

The person who patiently sits with a young child, encouraging him to read aloud when reading comes difficult

The person who delivers a hot meal to a homebound neighbor

The person who extends a hand in welcome to a stranger

The person who knits a prayer shawl for a hospital patient

Be one of those angels among us. Be an angel in someone’s life.

Be kind, be loving, be inclusive, be generous, be patient.

Today, this week: Watch for the angels around you. Take their cue and be one, too.

Sunday Sunshine: Plain and Simple: Be Kind

Each day, we encounter those who are hurting. When you do, offer a balm to them. Offer kindness. 

When you choose to be kind, you bring sunshine through your words, thoughts and actions.

Kindness changes things. It heals. It promotes hope. It brightens the day for others and for you. And it shines an example to others to be kind, too.

Today, this week: Plain and simple, be kind.

Sunday Sunshine: See the Beauty

The experiences of our lives have a tendency to set the lens through which we see others and view future experiences.

What if we shed those preset lenses for just today and chose to see everything and everyone from a new perspective?

Try this experiment: See the unique beauty in everyone you meet and everything you encounter. Come from a place of openness. Come from a place of kindness. Come from a place of patience. Come from a place of compassion. Come from a place of respect.

At the end of the day, consider what you learned from your experiment. Then, give it a try again tomorrow. And the next day. And the next.

Today, this week: Focus on the beauty in everyone and everything you encounter.

Sunday Sunshine: Love Works

In a world that often seems to be filled with fear, worry, division and differences, love is the answer. Love works. Love is the greatest gift that we can give each other.

Love builds bridges, offers compassion, displays kindness, shows patience, is gracious, is generous, values others. When unsure just what to do or say, come from a place of love.

Today, this week: Spread love. Love works.

Sunday Sunshine: Be Kind. Be Loving.

You hold tremendous power -- more power than you realize.

You have the capacity to fill the world with your love, kindness, and compassion. That's right -- to fill the world! 

As that good energy goes out into the universe, it gets passed on and on and on.

Be kind. Be compassionate. Be loving. 

Today, this week: Let your thoughts, words and actions be expressions of love and kindness. 

Sunday Sunshine: Dry a Tear

As the holidays approach, you have so much to give. Your gift, however, doesn't have to be purchased in a store or wrapped with an elaborate bow. It doesn't have to be the latest fad or break your piggy bank. 

Your gift is invaluable when it is your caring heart.

This season, what if you made it a practice for your gift to be that of kindness? How badly our world needs kindness! Every day, we encounter people who are hurting, who are injured by the circumstances of life, whose way is rough and who could use some compassion. 

Open your heart to others. Offer a word of encouragement. Dry a tear.

This holiday season, give love. Give compassion. Give kindness. Give patience. Give respect. Give your undivided self.

You don't have to buy a present. Instead, be present.

Today, this week, this holiday season: Be a gift to others by being kind and spreading compassion.

Sunday Sunshine: YOU Are Sunshine!

During a string of rainy days, I got to the point where I felt as if the sunshine was never going to return again. Although I don't think of myself as being negatively affected by the weather for very long, I have to admit that the day-after-day experience of slate skies and downpours was affecting my happiness.

The rainy days will come--perhaps as just one day of drizzle or perhaps as an extended period of torrents--in your life. But, no matter the weather, no matter the circumstances in your life, you have the ability, you hold the power to rise above the rain to a place of blue skies. 

You hold those blue skies inside of you at all times. You hold a place of sunshine inside of you always. You are light. You can bring that light to yourself at any time. And you can share it with others and be the light for them, too.

Today, this week: Spread sunshine, no matter the weather. Be light.

Sunday Sunshine: Kindness is Always in Season

Our day-to-day lives are packed with tasks. Our datebooks are filled with obligations. Every piece of paper found lying around seems to be ripe for a to-do list. 

Sure, you're in a hurry. You have a lot to do. It's easy to just put your head down and keep on keepin' on.

In your busy life, however, how often do you go out of your way to be kind, especially to a stranger?

Being kind doesn't have to be something big. It can be as simple as holding the door open for someone else. It can be sharing your smile with others as you walk by. It can be allowing someone behind you in the grocery check-out lane to go ahead of you because they have fewer items. It can be a pat on the back that you give your co-worker for a job well done. It can be a high-five you give your child. It can be making yourself totally present to someone who needs a moment of your time.

You may be busy, but you're never too busy to be kind. When you're kind to others, kindness has a lovely way of coming back to you.

Today, this week: Make room each day to be kind. Kindness is always in season. Kindness matters.

Sunday Sunshine: Give of Yourself

Think about those times when you gave of yourself to a charitable cause or to a neighbor, to a fundraising event or to a friend. Perhaps you made a cash contribution. Perhaps you volunteered for an event. Perhaps you offered someone a ride, took a grieving family a casserole, donated a winter coat to a clothing drive, or held a person's hand when he or she was sad and hurting. 

When we look outside of ourselves and reach out to someone else with compassion, love and generosity, there is often a feeling of deep satisfaction and connection. 

And the amazing thing is that when we are generous, that generosity often has a way of coming back to us when we least expect it or in ways that surprise us. The circle of love keeps going around and around.

Look for opportunities to give of yourself every single day. If you can, do so under the radar so that your gift is anonymous. You don't need a pat on the back or to receive credit for your generosity in order for your gift to have meaning. 

Be generous without expecting anything in return. The act of giving is all that's needed to fill your heart. 

Today, this week: Give of yourself. Reach out with love. Have a generous heart.

Sunday Sunshine: Build a Bridge, Be a Bridge

While hiking in a verdant, natural area, we suddenly encountered a bright yellow sign emblazoned with the word "bridge" in bold, black capital letters.

Surely, the sign informed hikers and cross-country skiers of an upcoming bridge, but the sign also made me think about the ways we can be bridges, too.

When we choose to be a bridge of love and understanding, we create a safe place for respectful conversation. We serve as a sign to others of a safe crossing for differing ideas and perspectives. We invite others who may think, speak or live differently than we do to be our teachers. We encourage the expansion of our own knowledge and understanding.

Choose to listen with an open mind and heart and invite others to respectfully share their thoughts, their perspectives, their experiences and their talents. Soon the chasms of misunderstanding and fear will be gone. In their place, we will find bridges forming in all directions.

Today, this week: Listen with an open mind and heart. Build bridges of love, respect and understanding. 

Sunday Sunshine: Choose Kindness

How many times have you said something and wished you could scoop those words back up and swallow them? 

How many times have you done something (or not done something) and thought afterward that you could have acted differently and made the day better for someone else?

Our days are made up of myriad moments that present possibilities for our thoughtful words and actions.

No matter how difficult those moments, no matter how badly our patience is tested, there is always room for kindness.

When you choose to be kind, your kindness serves as a magnet. It finds ways to come back to you multi-fold. 

Kindness is an energy that our world so badly needs.

That doesn't mean that you shouldn't create healthy boundaries for yourself. It means that when you have an opportunity to lift up or tear down, always choose to lift up. Always.

Today, this week: In your every encounter, choose to be kind.

Sunday Sunshine: Spring Clean Your Internal House

The chatter can feel deafening. We are constantly bombarded by messages, both positive and negative. It seems, though, that we tend to dwell most on the negative messages. 

It's spring, the perfect season to clean your internal house. Remove the gossip, the mean-spirited words and the stressful news from your life as much as possible. 

Fill that newly cleaned space with kindness, love, joy, and positive energy and activities. Then, share that love, kindness and joy with others around you. 

Let the good energy flow out of you like unfurling petals of a bright spring flower. You have the power to bring such beauty to yourself and to the world.

Today, this week: Rise above the fray in this world. Bloom with love and kindness to everyone around you. 

Sunday Sunshine: Draw from a Place of Love

It's easy in this age of 24/7 news and polarizing perspectives to believe that we can do nothing to positively affect the world. We can easily forget that one of the most powerful things we can do every single day is to spread love. What better way to build a bridge during a time of so many great divides?

When we step back a moment from the things that appear to separate us and focus instead on how we might be kind, respectful, compassionate and loving, we take positive action that sends ripples of positivity in all directions. 

We benefit when we live with our whole hearts -- hearts of love, kindness and decency.

Today, this week: Draw from a place of love in all you think, say and do.

Sunday Sunshine: Always Be Kind

Last spring, I had the occasion to sit on a bench in a beautiful botanical garden. Carved into the bench's backrest were these words attributed to J. M. Barrie: "Always be a little kinder than necessary."

There is always an opportunity to be kind and to be kinder than necessary. 

Admittedly, there are times when being kind stretches our very being. It takes all of our might not to lash out. The other person might be in a bad mood or might have said or done something rude or might have been inconsiderate of our feelings.

But kindness changes things. It stops a negative energy cycle in its place. Kindness brightens the day for you and it might even change the behavior of others. 

When you choose to be kind, even more so than necessary, you bring sunshine through your words, thoughts and deeds.

Today, this week: Be kind, always.

Fresh Thoughts for Your Monday: Be the Light in the Darkness

The days are short, the nights long. At times, it feels as if you get up in the dark, go to work in the dark, come home in the dark, go to sleep in the dark.

For some of us, life itself can feel dark with grief, sadness, loss, tragedy, uncertainty. We crave light—just a little ray of light—in all of that darkness.

Be the light where there’s darkness. Be love where there’s hate. Be kindness where there’s cruelty. Be hopeful where there’s uncertainty.

Today, this week: Cast your light into a dark world.