Life is better with friends. Life is better when we show kindness to others.
We all need friends, don’t we? Friends make life sweet. Friends are sometimes even better than family, as they have chosen to understand and care about you. As I look back over my life, my friends have supported me and held me up and also made me laugh. My friends have been there in my darkest moments and have held me in their arms when I needed a really good cry.
Let me give you an example.
Shortly after I graduated from college, someone I cared about was killed in a C-130 crash. My good friends from college were up at the University and they heard a radio broadcast about a plane crash near Little Rock Air Force Base. Without even contacting me, they got in their car and drove the 4 hours to my home to be by my side. THAT is friendship. Those wonderful people are my friends today.
I need friends and I have to believe that all of you need friends. I love to cultivate new friends and I embrace my old friends. I know I have said it before, but you know I love to entertain and I look for any excuse or holiday to invite my friends and maybe even just invite acquaintances into my home. This Christmas I hosted my annual Candy Cane Tea Party and I had about 25 old and new friends over to my home for tea. Even though many of the people did not know each other when they arrived, I believe they left my home with some new friendships.
Why, in this day when our entire military community needs friends, would some of us chose to question the motives of people who are trying their best to do good things for the military? There are people out there who have absolutely NO immediate connection to the military, but they just want to offer some form of support. They use their extremely valuable and precious free time to learn about ways to connect with the military. Wow! We always refer to the 1 percent who serve and the other 99 percent who do not serve. We need that 99 percent to at least acknowledge the military and we definitely need their support.
I know that this is my soapbox, but I choose to stand on that soapbox and continue speaking out to all of you about kindness. Social media may give you the means but not the right to attack the motives of people because you disagree with them. Social media should be used to share and inspire others to do good deeds. I recently posted the video of a group of military children on a playground and when “Colors” are played they all immediately stand at attention. That post received thousands of looks. Positive posts win the day! I continue to hear from people all over the world who tell me to continue my posting. Hopefully, it is useful and more importantly, inspirational.
This magazine gives each of us a powerful and influential voice. We have the ability to reach both within the military family and also outside our military community. We should first and foremost be supportive of each other and then also show the wonderfully patriotic citizens of this great country that we appreciate their support. In this day of shrinking military budgets and the attention of the American public shifting away from military and military spouse issues, let’s choose to show our good side. Let’s choose to embrace those that want to support us.
I end with a quote. “Ask yourself: Have you been kind today? Make kindness your modus operandi and change your world.”
Annie Lennox
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