Lessons may be viewed as difficulties or challenges to be overcome, but in reality they are an exercise in fine tuning that will make our efforts more effective in the long run. We are developing skills, attitudes, and perspectives that we need to move forward with insight and awareness.

Kindness is something that we must own and extend to ourselves, before we are able to extend it to others. When we do this, we do not determine whether someone deserves our kindness anymore than we determine whether someone deserves to be spoken to in their own language. It is simply something we do because it has become our nature to be kind.

All people want and have the right to be treated with Dignity and Respect, No Exceptions. The only way we can do this is by separating people from their behavior. Behavior is not always worthy of respect, but the person always is.

What we notice is what resonates with our inner perspective. We tend to overlook what does not connect with our current attitude or sense of awareness. When it comes to a tragic occurrence, do we focus on the horror stories or on the stories of courage and support? Both are available to us.

Power is not something that we can bestow on another person. It is something he or she already has within and will struggle to retain. Empowerment means that we acknowledge the personal power each person has to make positive decisions and to take responsibility for them, a simple exercise in treating others with dignity and respect.

How often do we miss the serendipitous beauty of the many facets of the people who populate our world? If we only look, we'll surely find more than we could ever imagine. Not only in others, but in ourselves as well.