By the Way... Thank You

A few years ago when I began riding the buses in Vancouver, BC, Canada, I was struck by and amazed at the fact that most of the people getting off of the bus would yell out, ‘thank you’ to the driver as they left.  Seeing it once, interesting, but I began to see it over and over again from most of the bus riders leaving the bus.  Why are they thanking him/her I asked myself.  The bus driver gets us where we are going, on an established route, no less.  Sometimes the driver accomplishes that fact better than other times.  So the bus driver is doing a job, not even necessarily a good job.  But people are still saying thank you.  I can’t say that I can think of too many jobs where you are thanked for doing a job, so often, by so many. 
I thought perhaps this was a Canadian phenomenon and chalked it up to that. 
I am now riding the bus in Bellingham, WA, and guess what?  People do it here also.  People leaving the bus are constantly saying thank you.  I am just deciding to not think it odd anymore and just accept it.  I am going to watch other places and see how many people say thank you for someone doing a job they are supposed to be doing.  We tip waiters and waitresses.  Sometimes we say thank you to them, mostly if they bring us something we asked for.  I guess its good that people are polite.  and perhaps they are teaching us something about gratitude. 
Oh, and by the way...  Thank you all who follow this and read these words.  I really do appreciate it. 
Thank you...

A Job for You...

Do you watch the news, or perhaps, don’t watch the news anymore because you see all the pain, and violence, and terrible things happening, nasty weather, earthquakes.   OMG it’s just too much... the world is going to hell in a handbasket (whatever that means).  You are probably tired of me telling you that these are the birth pangs of a world we would really want to live in.  Well I have a job for you.   It has a couple of parts to it.  First of all your job is to stay positive.  Allow yourself to settle into a peaceful acceptance of what is and believe with all your heart that it is change for the better.  
And the second part of your job is to do something about it.   Now I totally understand we are not all Martin Luther King Junior, Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Jesus, any of the other known heroes.   But you have opinions, ideas.  I think a lot of people understand what is going on with politics.  What I want you to do is think about what you would do with a particular world/national/local/community/personal challenge.  Think about what could be done to improve or change that situation using love, fairness, honesty, unity as your basis for change.  Then think about all of the people you influence.  Your spouse, your friend, your sibling, your child, your grandchild.   Break the subject to them.  Tell them there are solutions to the worlds’ problems that don’t involve hate/violence/exploitation.  If you have thought of a solution tell them this is what you would do.   You may not have the courage or the ability to do it yourself.   Ask them to come up with their own ideas. You may be the one that sparks the fire within a child that comes up with the solution to hunger, energy, peace...   It doesn’t matter if it was your idea, if you were not the one to bring it about.  The earth holds your energy....  The world knows.....
A quote from Wilfred A. Peterson that I used in 1962 during a high school graduation speech.  “As you throw the weight of your influence on the side of the good, the true and the beautiful, your life will go on in others, bigger, finer, nobler, than you ever dared to be...”