I just finished reading the book called Wonder for the second time. I wanted to read it again before seeing the movie adaptation. I liked it more this time.
The style of writing is from several character points of view. This is awesome! Just when you start to take a side you hear more information from someone else. The takeaway is that we don’t know what is going on in another person’s life so we should be “Kinder than is necessary. Because it’s not enough to be kind. One should be kinder than needed.” Hand out smiles like candy and well wishes like popcorn….do whatever you can to make someone’s day better just because they saw you.
A second quote from the book is, “It’s what you’ve done with your time, how you chose to spend your days, and whom you’ve touched this year. That is the greatest measure of success.”
Now is the time to look back at 2017 and think about the year.
What did you accomplish? Were your days spent doing for others or feeling sorry for yourself? Whose life is better just for knowing you? I try not to mention politics here, but I will make an exception just this once….. our leadership has a very “ME” mentality, and I personally don’t care for that train of thought. I watched a video where the message shared was that our lives are not about us. Our lives are about all the people around us, all the people we touch, all the people we impact, influence and love. We need to source our life for the people around us.
A final quote from the book that moved me to tears. “Everyone, just once in their lives, should receive a standing ovation at least once in their lives.”
This week I attended the funeral of a dear, sweet woman named Maggie. I met Maggie last year through a mutual friend. We worked together for almost a year on the Field to Feast Community Dinner. We laughed over stories while cleaning strawberries and cutting up apples. Her laugh and smile were infectious. Her brother asked that she receive her final standing ovation at her funeral. Through my tears, I smiled because I just knew Maggie would have loved this. We were all given a chance to be kinder than necessary, and we took full advantage of it to say goodbye.
“If every person in this room made it a rule that wherever you are, whenever you can, you will try to act a little kinder than is necessary— the world really would be a better place. And if you do this, if you act just a little kinder than is necessary, someone else, somewhere, someday, may recognize in you, in every single one of you, the face of God.”
~ The book called Wonder.
Taste of Home columnist Sandy (Anderson) Holthaus lives on a farm in South Haven, MN with her husband, Michael, and their children Zoe, Jack and Ben. Her heart remains on the North Shore where she grew up with her parents, Art and LaVonne Anderson of Schroeder. She enjoys writing about her childhood and mixes memories with delicious helpings of home-style recipes.
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