travel with kindness

when we travel, we meet many people – from the folks working at the airport to the person driving your cab to the bartender mixing you a drink to a server bringing your appetizer to a ranger working at a tourist stop.  and if you treat each of these people with kindness and with the same respect you expect, then your trip will be a smoother, more pleasant, more rewarding, more enlightening experience.  so when the doorman at your hotel opens the door for you, say “thank you, sir” – and when your travel guide finishes your 2 hour tour through the Sedona red rocks, say thank you and give him a tip – and if you have to valet your car or store your bags at the hotel, then say thank you and give them a tip.  this is what you are supposed to do and this is how you are supposed to act.  be thankful for the many people you come across in your travels and be kind to them in every way.  they will treat you better and it just feels good to be kind to others.  also, you will surprise them because they are not used to people being kind back to them.

sandbags

you need to keep putting the sandbags on the wall to keep the wall from breaking.  this is what we do in life – we keep putting more and more sandbags on the wall.  we must not let the wall break, we must find more sandbags, we must never give up on this one task.  if we can’t find more sandbags and we can’t keep fortifying the wall – then the wall will crack and break and everything will come tumbling down upon us.  this is the most dire of events that leads to the most drastic life changes – the loss of your house, the loss of your job, the loss of your family, the loss of your hope, the loss of a life – these are the things that happen when we stop putting sandbags on the wall of life.  you must always search for sandbags – this search never stops until the day you die.  if you keep searching and you keep trying, you will find those sandbags and you will help keep the wall intact.  yes, cracks will appear in the wall – this is life.  but, you must never let the wall collapse altogether.  you must do what you have to do to keep the wall up and to keep the sandbags coming.  a perfect wall does not exist – everyone must find sandbags to stop the cracks from getting bigger.  whether it is a financial burden that is causing the cracks or an emotional burden – you must not stop what you are doing – you must tolerate the people and events around you to keep the sandbags coming – you must put up with things you want to give up on – you must tolerate being around people that you don’t want to be around.  you must be calm and patient and tolerant – for the sake of keeping the wall together.  you must do these things and you must learn to live through these things.  that is why they say life is hard – because we all have to do things that we don’t want to do in order to keep the sandbags coming to keep each of our own walls from tumbling down.