The Impact We Make

       "You don't get a second chance to make a first impression."
            -Unknown

I've always believed this quote to be true, but I didn't realize, until very recently, just how true it was for me personally.  I had a classmate from my junior high days contact me the other day (They know who they are) after reading my blog.  They said how junior high was rough for them, but that I was one of the people they could look back on and have a positive memory because I took the time to be a friend and treat them like a normal person.  They said, "It's probably a case of one person having more of an impact than they realize on another."  That really struck a cord in me.  I was incredibly touched and humbled, and then very inspired to write this post. 

        "Kindness in ourselves is the honey that blunts the sting of unkindness in another."
            -Walter Savage Landor

        "Remember there's no such thing as a small act of kindness. Every act creates a 

         ripple with no logical end.”
            -Scott Adams

This person moved away after Junior high and just recently found me on Facebook, and it has been many years since those days, so it is so true that even the smallest of gestures can make a big impact and the impression we make is a lasting one.  The paths we choose to take and the actions we choose to make not only affect us and who we are, but it also affects those whose paths we cross and whose lives we enter, no matter how long or short of a time that may be. 

        "Invest in the human soul. Who knows, it might be a diamond in the rough."
            -McLeod Bethune

We all need to try to be as patient, as tolerant, as open minded, as thoughtful, and as kind as possible to everyone we meet because we don't know that person's struggles and we don't know just how much of a difference we could make in their lives with the simplest of gestures.  Just a smile can go a very long way.  We also never know where and in what situation we might find the greatest of people and the truest of friends, when our paths might cross again, and the difference they could make in our lives as well...

        Kind hearts are the gardens, kind thoughts are the roots, kind words are the

        flowers, and kind deeds are the fruits. Take care of your garden and keep out

        the weeds; fill it with sunshine, kind words, and kind deeds."

          -Henry Wadsworth Longfellow