Compliments! in A New Beginning

I love giving people compliments and in general, saying things that uplift people. I never give false compliments, and I’ll tell you why....ya don’t have to! If you reeeeeally LOOK at people, you can nearly always find something good you can say about them! Oh, not necessarily every moment…but if we complimented anybody that often, it would quickly lose its value, wouldn’t it? But from time to time.

For example, there is this one girl in my lunch line who is THE LOUDEST THING ON GOD’S EARTH. Oh my goodness, this girl is big and bold and she has a damn loud mouth! And it’s not that she says bad things....she doesn’t; she just comes in having fun with her friends, and her mouth is incredibly LOUD. To be honest, I get VERY tired of hearing her! BUT!! Today I noticed that she and her best friend had done something new with their hair! I’d already heard about it from the cashier on the other serving line, who a few days ago was talking about some girl coming in “looking like she had a damn poodle on her head.”

Well, these two big, tall, LOUD girls had the biggest, curliest heads of hair I have ever seen in my life. But ya know what? I thought, “Wow, that’s different and actually kinda cute.” And I had a long time to look at it because it was a difficult serving day and the line was moving very slowly. When they finally got up to my register, though, I smiled at them and said enthusiastically, “Wow, I really like your hair!” And those two girls gave me the biggest sweetest smiles ever and said, “aww! Thank you!”

Now I can think of this one girl, not so much as “the loudest thing on God’s earth,” but as the girl with the cute hair. And the sweet smile too! A lot of people like to bitch about teenagers having “attitudes,” but most folks develop a nice friendly “attitude” if they get treated that way often enough.

When I say that I love the kids at school, I truly mean that I love them. It’s no “love the sinner hate the sin” kinda thing with me. I love them because of the way they are. Maybe if I were a teacher I wouldn’t feel that way. Who knows? But for that reason, I am very happy to be a lunch lady. :o) And I very much believe that I can, and DO have a very positive impact on their lives. Small things, added up, count for a lot at times.

I am thankful for the ways that my spiritual path has made me a better person. I used to be someone who could dislike some people. And, to be honest, life presents us with a good many people who can definitely try our patience (to put it mildly!). But Goddess (or God, if you prefer that name) told me once, “Nicky, if you cannot find anything whatsoever to like about a person, then you are not trying hard enough.” And another time, “Don’t ever look down on anyone, because however they are, you once were also.” (Keeping in mind that my spiritual path includes a belief in reincarnation, and each of us living many lives....however awesome we might be in THIS life doesn’t mean we didn’t have to struggle through a good many lives of being a lot less so, to reach this point!)

Anyhow, those are my mental meanderings for this very early morning. :o) It’s the weekend, and it’s 4:30 a.m. I’m going to shower (because I didn’t feel like it last night) and go back to bed! :o)