100 Ways to Be Salt and Light

Look at the news, go on social media, and it's an automatic recipe for depression, discouragement and rage.  To be salt and light to the world, we have to respond to all the darkness, anger, frustration and pain with kindness, with care, with patience and with humor. It takes 21 days to break a bad habit, and sixty-six to create a new one...which if you put them together, results in 87 days.  However, since we know we're all flawed busy creatures, we've added 13 extra bonus ideas for your pleasure, so you can do more than go around the world, you can help change it for the better. 

So here's  ways to be salt and light to an often tasteless and shaded world. 

100) Smile. 
99) Water a plant.
98) write a letter.
97) read to someone.
96) put on beautiful music.
95) go for a walk in God's cathedral.
94) pray for someone you don't know.
93) call a friend.
92) arrange a date with your spouse or one of your siblings or one of your children.
91) clean a room for someone else.
90) say a family rosary.
89) sing with the radio.
88) Donate clothing.
87) volunteer your time.
86) bake bread or something yummy, bring it in to the office.
85) invite a friend out to lunch.
84) when you see something on the Internet that irritates you, try to see why someone might hold that point of view, or alternatively, offer a constructive alternative perspective that doesn't presume the ignorance or malice of anyone who disagrees. 
83) put fresh flowers on the table.
82) use the good silver.
81) find the funny.  Share it.
80) Learn something new today. (I learned it takes 66 days to create a new habit). 
79) practice something you used to know how to do --in my case, piano.
78) practice something you don't know how to do --in my case, sew.
77) ask someone if they need help with something --hint, not what you just started learning.  --son..driving lessons...
76) strive to compliment rather than critique when someone else is learning. (This is hard for me especially when dealing with driving lessons). 
75) eat dinner together.
74) play games together.  (I got creamed in brawl).
73) watch a movie together.
72) Let yourself not look at a screen --screen free evening, once a week. 
71) plan a date.
70) exercise outside.
69) Do an inventory of your home, for home repairs. Pick one and start.
68) Channel your inner Marie Kondo...clean out a closet.
67) tell stories from your family.
66) plan a trip.
65) collect and give your change once a week to a soup kitchen/homeless person.
64) say "Yes" when someone says, "I need a volunteer."
63) Be ten minutes early.
62) stay afterward to help out.
61) Give hugs often.
60) Laugh easily.
59) Ask questions, find out how people met, their favorite cakes, songs, secret talents.
58) Say please and thank you.
57) Admit when you don't know.
56) Listen.  Really listen.
55) Forgive.  Often. Each time you remember it hurts.
54) light candles
53) go outside at dawn and watch the world wake up
52) go outside at night and stare at the stars.
51) draw on the sidewalk, until you're out of chalk.
50) write a poem.
49) help someone else with their stress.
48) check in on someone who is sick/recovering. 
47) support a local theatre by seeing their production
46) give compliments easily.
45) offer a mass for someone.
44) dance with your children.
43) get rid of a pile.
42) leave a love note for your spouse.
41) call your siblings.
40) clean a yard of sticks/trash
39) Recycle --really recycle for the week
38) Give your spouse a foot massage.
37) visit a museum
36) give money to a street musician, stay and listen.
35) invite friends over to play cards
34) pick fresh fruit, share with neighbors.
33) find some group at your church, go and meet new people.
32) fast.
31) let someone into the lane.
30) pay it forward for someone at the grocery store.
29) tip. 
28) take a day off and spend it at home, making home better.
27) plan a weekend trip to a local farm or museum.
26) try some place new.
25) write a letter to congress.
24) write a letter to the editor.
23) spend an hour studying something you avoided in college/high school --to remind you how hard it is to learn something we don't already love or know.
22) drink only water today, as a reminder of those who thirst.
21) give someone else the parking spot.
20) Share something lovely online.
19) go by the fire department or police department and tell them, "Thank you." before you need them.
18) bring groceries to the pantry.
17) dedicate a day to someone. Don't tell them. Just serve.
16) send a thank you to a teacher or coach, to a mentor who spoke to your heart.
15) resolve to stop entertaining the pains of your past as honored guests, re-injuring the present.
14) spring for ice cream. 
13) take a nap.
12) serve wine with a meal.
11) promote a friend's work/gifts.
10) spend a day never mentioning yourself.
9) do not get in the last word.
8) weed a garden.
7) weed your soul...of unwanted growths.
6) apologize
5) become educated about a problem and how you can help make it better.
4) go to adoration for someone else.
3) pray for the souls in purgatory.
2) speak truth with charity. 
1)  in all things, be kind.

Little Things

Growing up in Texas, I never gave much thought to the confederate flag or what it meant to different people.  But if we hold to the truism as Catholics, doing little things with great love, then the South can do this little thing, and swallow its pride and take down the flag that for many symbolizes the sanctioned hatred of people based on the color of their skin.

Our country keeps trying by policy and politics, to pretend if we put all the right safeguards in place, be it on the right or the left, there will be no more pain, no more needless suffering, no more injustice. But even worse, the public discourse, be it on facebook or in real life, on the news or the radio or anywhere, reveals an undercurrent of fundamental distrust.  We've allowed ourselves to become strangers to each other, and to distrust any with whom we disagree.

I hear it in my children's discussions of how the government works (or doesn't), how we fund education (or don't), the system of taxation, the system of justice, pick something, I've heard my children and their friends express contempt for what is, on the grounds it fails to live up to its promise.  One daughter presumes socialism would be "more just," because she sees the injustice of unfettered capitalism.   It would correct the abuses of unchecked free markets, but she fails to see the abuses that would rise in its stead.   But her reaching out for something other made me wonder about where we are going as a nation.

If we no longer have faith in our institutions, our leaders, our organizations, our corporations, or ourselves, we are a nation in danger of losing ourselves.  I read the papers, I follow politics, and both sides say the same thing for the same reasons, but about the other side.   It is no wonder the public is frustrated.  We never seem to find an accord, never seem to reach compromise without bruises, and never seem to believe those who oppose us (regardless of the topic you pick) have any legitimate business disagreeing.  As long as we hold there are no principles in common, there cannot be peace, true peace within the nation.

So we must begin with little things.   Little things that reveal we have more in common than not, and our hearts long for a fuller union than we have.  What sort of little things?   Little things like taking down the flag that hurts some, because it hurts some.  (That is sufficient a reason).   

Little things like caretaking for the Earth in little ways --recycling not because we will save the world by our actions, but by all of our actions, we can beautify the world around us.  Practicing kindness to one and all, even when we don't feel like it, will make the society as a whole, kinder.   We don't have to know the motives, (be they civic or religious), we simply need to decide. 

 We want a society that is more just, so we will be more just in our dealings with everyone we meet. 

 We want a society that is more fair, so we will be unfair in others favor, in an attempt to bring everyone to hold treating the other with innate dignity, a value.   

We want a world that is more merciful, so we need to exercise the benefit of the doubt about the person on the other side of any discussion, whether in a combox or anywhere else.   

We have to be like the sun with our mercy, pouring it out on all.   If we weigh who receives mercy, we are not merciful, for mercy is what one gives to someone who deserves justice, and who is more likely to receive our wrath.  

It won't make our country a utopia.  But it will make it better.  We can never remove the part of our hearts that has the capacity for evil. It's in everyone, and it is proof to me of our divine nature and calling; that acts of hatred and evil, of violence and depravity puzzle us even if we can trace the origins.

We are not meant as people, or as individuals, to destroy, or hate, to uglify or control.  We're meant to serve, to love, to heal, and to help set free.   So today, do something little and together, we can begin to bind the wounds and salve the hearts of a nation that should be so much kinder, stronger, and more just than it is.     Do a little thing.