A couple of nights ago I spoke to one of my greatest friends on the phone and besides all the jokes and silly comments, she said something along the lines of “If you think about a baby…people don’t take cater to babies just because they want to be seen as “good” but rather because they want to give that baby the best human experience.”

I am convinced we all come on this earth as visitors and leave when the time is right. If we could all view ourselves as hosts in our own little worlds then the best gift to humanity would be, just as we do for babies, to give our “visitors” the best human experience for however long they stay in our lives. Sometimes it means honesty, loyalty, respect, kindness, compassion, love, and more but we all know that we cannot always be “good” and so for those days, we have the option of silence or retreat.

There is nothing that irritates me more than a person talking trash about another person. It is one thing to talk about what someone did, said, or anything factual but it is another to interpret, judge, or criticize their actions in hopes of reducing, disrespecting, diminishing, or insulting who they are. One of my favorite quotes is from Nigerian writer Ijeoma Umebinyuo who wrote on Twitter:

i cannot imagine how unkind you have to be to yourself to make another person feel unloveable. who hurt you that bad?

I’m way too far from perfection but one thing I know for sure is that I am no better than the other person I could be talking about simply because I did not earn where I was born, the setting and environment I was given, the opportunities, the protection, the love or anything else. All I did was build on a foundation that the universe chose for me before I was conceived. I agree when people say when you don’t have anything good to say, don’t say anything at all. If you cannot help a homeless person in the streets then don’t talk about how they should “get their lives together”. If you cannot stand drug dealers, prostitutes or simply men and women who do not align with your principles and morals then pray for them, wish them a better life, or keep quiet and keep it moving. If you cannot stand people from a different culture, immigrants, refugees, or people who just don’t look like you or even speak the same language as you do then mind your business, and when you get tired of that humble yourself enough to ask about their journey, their life story, why they do things the way they do it instead of your way,  or simply what happened to them.

Love will always be the easiest route to take anytime, any day and perhaps it might look scary at times but love is what we were created for, it’s what our bodies, minds, and spirits call Home.

I hope you give every person you cross paths with the best human experience.

As it is written in the Bible,

Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself

It is equally important to give yourself the best human experience. To live your life in such a way that even long after you’ve departed, people can recognize how fully and wholly you have lived, loved and laughed.

There are so many little things one can do to make the world a better place but by far, the greatest gift you can ever give to humanity is your authentic self: your quirks and flaws, your smile and laughter, your wildness and craziness, your talent and passion, your strength, your fight for equality and justice, your kindness, your drive, your motivation, the way you talk, the way you make people feel, all of it.

I hope you can grant us the greatest gift of all time:

ALL OF YOU!

Love Always,

WWA