大象传媒

A spiritual comment and prayer to begin the day with Dr Steve Taylor, author on psychology and spirituality.

Good morning.

As a young man I spent a lot of time alone and had pretty poor social skills. I was hopeless at small talk. When shopkeepers or bus drivers tried to talk me about the weather or about last night鈥檚 football match, I would shrug my shoulders and mutter 鈥淚 dunno.鈥�

Now I鈥檓 the opposite. I love being friendly to people. One of my favourite pastimes is chatting to strangers in queues in shops, or on trains or buses. I love chatting to shop assistants, waiters and taxi drivers. I find that no one ever takes umbrage 鈥� they always respond with friendliness. Every time I have a friendly exchange 鈥� even if for just a few seconds - I feel that I鈥檝e created a connection.

The world is full of discord because it鈥檚 full of disconnection. It鈥檚 full of separate people, competing with one another, feeling that they鈥檙e in conflict, or that they can鈥檛 trust or understand each other. Every expression of friendliness, every exchange of empathy or generosity, transmutes discord into harmony.

Such exchanges are not just important for us individually, but for the human race as a whole. The more connections we create with another, the more harmony and unity we bring into the world.

So, as you go about your day today, make us make connections as you can. Here a few thoughts to reflect on:

It鈥檚 your responsibility
to radiate benevolence to everyone you meet
to be reckless with your friendliness
and to surprise strangers with your openness
on behalf of the whole human race.

It鈥檚 your responsibility
to turn suspicion to trust, hostility to sympathy
to expose the absurdity of prejudice
to return hatred with implacable goodwill
until your enemies have no choice but to love you
on behalf of the whole human race.

Make as many connections as you can
so that this broken world can become whole again.

Blessings.

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