I love life and being busy, but I have a tendency to make mistakes, and sometimes I over book myself, or forget important things. I am human. It seems that the world is a lot harder on people now. We don’t give allowances, screw up at work and you get yelled at instead of corrected and allowed to try again. We are anxious to sue others if they make a mistake, and rarely apologize or take responsibility for our actions as that may appear as weakness or an admittance of liability. I hate this.

I long for the polite society in books, where wrongs were forgiven, or dealt with swiftly, and others were quick to apologize and take responsibility. What happened to that world? When did we all become so calloused and self-serving? I work with children and have a son. He is showing signs of thinking he is entitled to a certain amount of toys, or money. He thinks that every time we go shopping he should get some amount of money to spend on himself. He is only 7. He isn’t grateful, and he’s not careful with what he does have. Often he’ll buy a toy and completely ignore it because it is just one more among hundreds. Now I realize i have a role to play in this behavior, but more than anything I want my son to value what he has and learn gratitude. How do you teach that as a parent in a world where entitlement and justification are the norm?

My life is filled with illness and financial difficulties. Sometimes it seems like things will never get better, and that we are always struggling just to make it through the day. I deal with a lot of pain, and have faced the fact that I might die several times alone in hospital beds. My health has improved, but it has left me with a very healthy awareness of all that I do have. I am grateful for what I am able to do each day. I am also much more willing to make allowances for others. We are all human. We all deserve respect, second and 20th chances and the opportunity to change. I think it is the fact that as humans beings we are able to grow, learn and change that makes us so special and that fascinates me. It is why I study psychology. I love seeing people change for the better. I love watching the transformation of children as they learn and grow into adults.

I challenge all my readers this week to be a little kinder, give others another chance, forgive a mistake, let things go that would normally bother you. Life is happier if you focus on what you have instead of all the things that are missing. There is so much out there that we will never have it all, know it all or do it all, but we don’t need to. We will all make mistakes and have to correct them. Knowing that nobody is perfect, and that there will never be “enough” means that we should focus on what is here and now. I would love to hear stories of how gratitude has improved your life, how you teach your children gratitude, or how you meet this challenge. Please comment and share. Let’s all make the world a little better and a little kinder. I think that this is going to be a major theme in my blogging and life.