With each passing day, it seems there is more and more anger and violence encompassing this world. From the acts of terrorism in the Middle East, to the daily shootings happening here in America, it’s hard to imagine that anything good is going to ever come out of this.
My response?
With the right attitude, anything is possible. All we need is a few people willing to go out of their way to show love and kindness. While it may be unrealistic to make an impact on a global scale, it is extremely realistic to make an impact on those close to you. However, that is how a ripple effect can happen.
People are powerful. It is we the people who make up this world. We are the ones who cause horrific events to happen. We are the ones who influence other people. We are also the ones who help and show love to others. Each person has their own ability to be a person who makes a difference. Mother Teresa, Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. didn’t become global figures overnight. They all had to start somewhere: being kind to someone and bringing love to places where there was none. This is where the ripple effect comes into play; their small actions of kindness poured into the community, and soon they had made an impact on millions of people.
Everyone needs to begin realizing how powerful kindness, even on a small-scale, can be. Imagine a world where everyone was kind to one another simply because someone else had been kind to them. Spreading love and kindness should be a number one priority, especially in a time like this when there is violence caused by hatred everywhere we turn.
I challenge anyone who is reading this to implement a little extra kindness into their daily lives: smile at a stranger, pick up something that a stranger drops, hold a door open for a mom with a stroller and just do something that shows there is still compassion left in humanity. You never know how one small action can impact the life of someone else's. It could even result in them wanting to be nice to someone, and then the ripple effect begins again! All it takes is a little bit of kindness and love from a few people who are determined to not fall victim to hatred, and the world would become an immensely better place.
Instead of thinking about how unrealistic it is to make a difference, and about how all of the hatred is inevitable, think about the power that each individual has. We are all just trying to get by, we might as well do so in a way that impacts those around us. A little bit of kindness can go a long way, and that is exactly what the world could use right about now.
