Taking time for courtesy

“Life is short, but there is always time enough for courtesy.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

I have been reading a book by Henry Drummond, freely adapted by Paulo Coelho, called The Supreme Gift, and translated from Portuguese into English by Margaret Jull Costa. I enjoyed the bits about the “love rainbow” and one important part of the rainbow of love, is courtesy; and that “courtesy shows the love among people, the love in society”.

I took a bus recently and watched as a young person took up a whole seat while a young Mum with two small children struggled to find seats together and I wondered what has happened to courtesy. Some people say courtesy is an unnecessary feeling. My angels and I look at it from another side and know that love is not rude, love is courteous. When we have a deep reservoir of love in our hearts we will behave correctly.

Ty Howard, one of America’s most-requested motivational speakers, business consultant and coach, suggests that “Common courtesy or respect should not be or feel like a grand gesture when you give it. When it’s a part of your value system and upbringing it comes and flows from you naturally.”

Courtesy should be a part of all our lives and flow naturally from us. I know it is not easy sometimes to show courtesy, to listen to the views of others and to try to understand who they are and how they live, yet this is required of us in order to love one another. Only fear can hold us back, something we need to let go of and make courtesy and respect for each other paramount in our lives. Respect is about caring enough to think about other’s feelings before we act.

So, my friends, join the “rainbow of love”, and cultivate all those special qualities of patience, kindness, generosity, humility, unselfishness, good temper, guiltlessness, sincerity and of course, courtesy.

Like Robert Burns said, “We need to love everything for if we do not, then we are prisoners to our feelings and cannot love.”

Arohanui.