There are so many ways we may hurt a friend, a child, a person we write to.

Let’s try to imagine how our words and sayings, our actions or our lack of wisdom can leave a print on a person,

like an open and painful wound, like the branding a beast carries till it’s death.

Did you ever think of the consequences and of the pains your gestures

may inflicts on your loved ones?

Friendships, complicity, love of our neighbours are some of the most

beautiful feelings in life.

What happiness to hear a thank you from a dear one after taking the time

to listen to their confidences…to console or encourage a person… to tell somebody

that their presence makes us happy…and in so doing, make them feel better…

Let’s tell people words of comfort, thus sowing courage

and strengthening the ties linking us together.

Have you ever put a stop or stifled the creative expression of a person by saying:

" You won’t succeed…this is too hard for you to do…you are incapable or

you disturb me with your ideas and grand projects…."

Sometimes it is hard to conceive that somebody may have the soul

of a creator, of a singer or just be foolhardy…

Are we allowed to tell our friends or a loved one to let go of their desires in life…

And by bullying their way of thinking and their point of view,

to kill in their souls their taste for growth?

I do not think so.

Selfishness is a cruel trap that breaks the heart of a person who makes place for it in his life. It is a terrible trap when the

heaviness of our words is used only to elevate our self-esteem.

To help and love our fellow man is a real balm for our heart and soul.

The soul, if it does exists, must surely be measured by its acts of goodness…

Most assuredly, it must be degraded by selfishness…

The humane person has a great need for love and has the carefree heart of a child.

That heart is the most beautiful thing in our life. Let’s bring out the goodness of that heart often

because it makes us loving and candid adults.

Often it is the adult heart that is the cause of our sorrows and selfishness…

When our relations dream and picture differently than us,

let’s show them respect with a hand shake and a smile.

Let’s persuade the person in doubt that doubt has no place and that

courage comes first of all from the complicity and the encouragement of friends,

brothers and sisters and from us too.

Let’s listen, listen without judging or hurting, what our soul tells us to do

and let us give to our heart it’s daily dose of joy, gaiety, sharing and without

a doubt happiness will knock on our door…to heal our heart from a lot of sorrows …

André Julien, June 2002