[2023-05-20] Saturday Synopsis #44
Tonight's post highlights the value of books, the joy of service, the power of compliments, the courage we sometimes need to ask for something, and a definition of becoming. It also features a photo of a dog we met with its owner yesterday in Almonte. I couldn't fit the photo in yesterday's montage, but—as it turns out—it stands better on its own anyway.
3 Ideas From Me
Like gardening, I've recently rediscovered my love of books. They have been a welcome teacher when I needed to put my own circumstances into perspective. While I wasn't previously a fan of audiobooks (my mind would wander and I found that it was challenging to rewind to the point that I could remember having absorbed the content), I have since taken to them. They are a friend to walk with me, a passive distraction when I'm feeling under the weather, and a gentle narrator when I'm trying to get back to sleep. They have been a welcome member of my healing team.
So if you, too, find joy in service, embrace it. Be proud of it. Do it until the joy wanes and then do something else. Serve yourself while serving others by doing what you love. Do ordinary things with extraordinary love. Be joyful.
A recent study (Insufficiently complimentary?: Underestimating the positive impact of compliments creates a barrier to expressing them) found that, even though compliments make both the giver and the receiver feel good, people dole out less praise than they think they should. Why? In a series of surveys, people in a position to compliment others underestimated how positive the recipients would feel and overestimated how awkward the recipients would feel. They also underestimated their own competence and warmth in delivering kudos.
2 Quotes From Others
One of life's fundamental truths states, "Ask and you shall receive." As kids we get used to asking for things, but somehow we lose this ability in adulthood. We come up with all sorts of excuses and reasons to avoid any possibility of criticism or rejection.
~ Jack Canfield
For me, becoming isn't about arriving somewhere or achieving a certain aim. I see it instead as forward motion, a means of evolving, a way to reach continuously toward a better self. The journey doesn't end. I became a mother, but I still have a lot to learn from and give to my children. I became a wife, but I continue to adapt to and be humbled by what it means to truly love and make a life with another person. I have become, by certain measures, a person of power, and yet there are moments still when I feel insecure or unheard. It's all a process, steps along a path. Becoming requires equal parts patience and rigor. Becoming is never giving up on the idea that there's more growing to be done.
~ Michelle Obama
1 Question for You
What is one thing you've been reluctant to ask for, but which—in retrospect—you see that you could ask for?
